Forum OpenACS Development: future of tcl at arsdigita...

Posted by David Kuczek on 02/15/01 10:24 PM

I heard that ArsDigita doesn't really believe in tcl anymore. I don't
want to be impolite, but does it make sense to port acs 4.x (tcl),
when it might be replaced by the Java version? If I am missing some
strategic or technological thoughts, please tell me.

2: Response to future of tcl at arsdigita... (response to 1)

Posted by Michael A. Cleverly on 02/15/01 10:39 PM

This other thread in the general OpenACS forum talks about this issue.

The basic summary is that aD is moving to Java since Java is more buzz-word compliant. It is (perceived to be) easier to sell to big companies than Tcl. However, aD still will have a lot of client projects in Tcl, and at this point ACS 4 is more advanced in Tcl than Java. The tcl version of ACS will likely continue living on in OpenACS long after the final aD version in Tcl.

Since this is an open source project, the people interested in helping with the Tcl port will help with it, and those interested in helping with the Java port will help with it. I'm currently much more interested in Tcl than java, but then since my focus is on getting things done and done quickly (I'm not in marketing, so I don't need to worry about being buzzword-compliant). Different people will surely have different opinions.

3: Response to future of tcl at arsdigita... (response to 1)

Posted by Don Baccus on 02/15/01 11:35 PM

Also, ACS 4x (tcl) won't be replaced by ACS 4x(java), it will live side-by-side. aD has been working on client sites with ACS 4x (tcl), for instance.

The real break comes with ACS 5. Just as ACS 4 signified a large restructing and rewrite of the ACS 3 toolkit, ACS 5 will be a significant rewrite once again. Read Malte's (aD Germany) comment in the thread mentioned above.