I ran the group working on Jacl and TclBlend at Sun. Sun had several =
language projects at the time but it was becoming clear that Java was =
the big sucess and that you had better do something Java related if you =
wanted last. (Well that was the cynical view anyway.) We also knew =
that Java really needed a scripting story - which is why we started the =
project.
=20
At the time, however, Sun was in a hurry because Netscape who was the =
big player to adopt Java was also working on a scripting language. We =
were proposing to Sun management that Jacl would be just the ticket. In =
the end, Bill Joy pushed for a deal with Netscape to name the language =
they were working on as JavaScript.
=20
I think John O's critical stance of OO (that rubbed the Java guys the =
wrong way) and Tcl's lack of object oriented features was one of the =
biggest reasons something did not happen. Though I'm sure timing and =
other political things were also part of the mix - I certainly do not =
claim to know the whole picture. Though I do know that that decision =
marked the begining of the end of Tcl at Sun.
So I too find this interest in Jacl by Sun folks as ironic.
=20
Another irony, (in my own humble opinion) is that it seems to me this =
effort is in a response really to Microsoft's efforts to support dynamic =
languages. MS is way ahead of Java at this point in supporting dynamic =
lanugages. Sun is now playing catch-up to MS's lead...
=20
Ray
=20
________________________________
From: tcl...@li... on behalf of Patrick =
Finnegan
Sent: Sun 2/18/2007 1:38 PM
To: tcl...@li...
Subject: Re: [tcljava-dev] tcljava-dev Digest, Vol 5, Issue 3
>
> Of course, these things always contribute a little to the traditional
> "we have the best-kept secret", or perhaps, "we have the largest
> inferiority complex" that plagues the Tcl world. One would like to
> think that Tcl/Jacl wouldn't be relegated to the "etc." category in
> lists such as this (from the Java One flyer).
>
The greatest irony is that Tcl and JACL were originally developed by Sun =
and
then put out to grass. The fact is dynamic language capability has been =
part
of the JVM since 1997. Just look at the JACL source. It has Sun =
copywrite
plastered all over the shop. Just add the two JACL jar files to the
lib/ext directory of the Java SDK/JRE to enable dynamic class loading =
and hey
presto you have a built in scripting environment for JAVA. I am amazed =
that
Java did not ship with built in JACL as standard. =20
* BlendExtension.java --
*
* This extension encapsulates the java::* commands.
*
* Copyright (c) 1997-1998 by Sun Microsystems, Inc.
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