When comparing LiveCode vs Tcl, the Slant community recommends Tcl for most people. In the question“What is the best programming language to learn first?” Tcl is ranked 31st while LiveCode is ranked 35th. The most important reason people chose Tcl is:
Unlike *sh Tcl has a rich standard library.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Fast to get results
Pro Cross-platform
Inside LiveCode's IDE you can build for OSX, Linux and Windows, and (making use of Xcode and the Android SDK) for iOS and Android too
Pro Extremely simple to get started
Single-click install of entire development environment, and all-in-one IDE makes it easy to go from visually layout out a user interface to writing code to power it to creating your own single-file applications.
Pro GUI-driven development
In LiveCode, you start by dropping GUI elements into place, then add the code that makes them function. This lets beginners see visual results right away, which is often more exciting (especially for young students). It also lets you focus on the user interaction before you get into the nitty-gritty of code implementation.
Pro Approachable yet capable language
Pro Highest ROI compared to other popular cross-platform development tools
Fluid production - from prototyping to delivery in one toolkit. With a high-level language that includes GUI controls as native elements, code more directly expresses the end-user experience. And the platform coverage is awesome, nearly unmatched.
Pro Standard library
Unlike *sh Tcl has a rich standard library.
Pro Sane quoting rules
Unlike in sh you don't need to quote your variable substitutions ('"$1"').
Expanding of arguments occurs mostly explicit and if yet expected in-place (e. g. using eval
or subst
) it follows strict and well clear rules.
So exec test $argv
would execute test with single argument.
And appending {*} before $argv
would execute test with all arguments (list expansion).
Pro Cross-platform
With a little care you can have the same script work on Linux, *BSD, OS X and Windows.
Pro Widely available
You can expect a reasonably recent version of Tcl to either installed or available in the repositories of any popular open source *nix.
Pro Everything is a string
Tcl can operate at the same level of abstraction as the POSIX shell, which makes it easier to manipulate the output of other programs.
Pro Tk and Expect
Pro Standalone packages
Tcl enables easy deployment through self-contained binaries known as starpacks.
Pro Rich scripting capabilities on a single line
Want to run something 5 times? Here you go: set i 0; time { puts done-[incr i] } 5
If you need real conditional cycle? Not a problem: for {set ready 0; set i 1} {$i <= 100 && !$ready} {incr i} { if {[exec do-some-thing] eq "ready" } {set ready 1} }
Want to measure performance of something or repeat it max 300 times and not longer than 1 seconds? Very simple: timerate { after 20 } 1000 300
How about notifying yourself when some http-server is back online? Sure thing: while {[catch { close [socket localhost 80] }]} { after 1000 }; puts "\7\7\7ONLINE!"
And you can do it also fully asynchronously using events etc.
Cons
Con fringe use
Con Poor ecosystem
Not a mainstream programming language.