Re: [tcljava-user] Reasons for using JACL?

[Scott S. <ss...@am...>]

Patrick Finnegan wrote:
> It seems to me that the primary purpose of JACL is to allow java programmers 
> write procedural non object orientated code that will run under a JVM and 
> perhaps allow non java programmers to access or administer the application 
> through a simple script interface .  Are there any other reasons why Java 
> programmers would embed JACL or indeed Jython in a Java application rather 
> then writing everything in pure Java?
>   

You've got some good answers already, but I'll throw ours in. 

In the chip design business many vendors use Tcl to control their 
software, so many chip designers know Tcl.  We have some considerable 
in-house software that we have written in Java that we would like to 
expose for use with Tcl, so we use TclBlend.  We also pass stuff back 
and forth, as we have both Java and Tcl programmers.  We could just as 
easily use JACL instead, but users might have issues controlling other 
vendor software (C/C++) from JACL.  There was also some thought of 
pulling our in-house tool into 3rd party vendor tools in a slick way by 
pulling it in "their" Tcl interpreter.  (we might have to use some 
master/slave interpreter setup though)

Kristoffer Lawson said: "Pure Java is quite simply inferior when it 
comes to writing tests or for dynamic stuff from the CLI or whatever. In 
fact, Java is inferior to Tcl for the core stuff as well, but I have no 
say in that matter."

I'll take the otherside: "Tcl is simply inferior when it comes to core 
stuff, it's a mess.  In fact, Tcl is inferior to Java (with BeanShell) 
for the scripting stuff as well, but I have no say in that matter."  ;)

That said...  TclBlend/Jacl saved our 3-4 man project from being 
implemented in C++... Which would NOT have solved any problems and would 
have taken a 2x productivity hit.  For that - I am grateful for Mo's 
work (and the others involved).

Thanks,
Scott