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The State of Tcl

The State of Tcl. John Ousterhout Scriptics Corporation. Scriptics Corporation  2275 E. Bayshore Rd., Suite 101  Palo Alto, CA 94303  650-843-6900. http://www.scriptics.com. Outline. Major events of the last year Current state of Tcl Scriptics: mission, products, etc.

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The State of Tcl

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  1. The State of Tcl John Ousterhout Scriptics Corporation Scriptics Corporation  2275 E. Bayshore Rd., Suite 101  Palo Alto, CA 94303  650-843-6900 http://www.scriptics.com

  2. Outline • Major events of the last year • Current state of Tcl • Scriptics: mission, products, etc. • Marketing Tcl • What’s next: Tcl 8.1 and beyond

  3. The Year in Review • Tcl as of the 1997 Tcl Conference: • Tcl/Tk 8.0 almost finished • SunScript recently canceled • Concerns over lack of marketing for Tcl • Tcl/Tk 8.0: • Final release in August, 1997 • Latest patches (8.0.3) in September, 1998 • Most extensions now work under 8.0 • Tcl/Tk 8.1: • Currently in alpha release • Internationalization (Unicode support) • Thread safe • Improved regular expressions

  4. The Year in Review, cont’d • Tcl Consortium: • Created by Michael McLennan • Director: Peter Salus • Mission: publicize Tcl, organize the Tcl community • Tcl Blast! CD-ROM: • Created by the Tcl Consortium • Core software plus many extensions • Bundled together • Precompiled for many platforms • Formation of Scriptics (more on this later) • End of the Sun Tcl project

  5. The Year in Review, cont’d • Java support: • Tcl Blend: use Java in C Tcl applications • Jacl: new Tcl interpreter written in Java • [incr Tcl] 3.0 • Many new open source extensions • Open source software becomes respectable: • Publicity for Linux, Perl, Apache, etc. • Netscape announcement to free Mozilla • Linux support from Oracle, Informix, Corel, etc. • New open source companies: Sendmail, Scriptics, etc. • O’Reilly Open Source Summit and Open Source Developers Day

  6. Tcl Download Rate

  7. Tcl Today • Download rates from Scriptics: • 8,000-10,000 Tcl downloads/week: Windows: 60-65% Unix: 30-35% Macintosh: 5% • Changes since last year: • Overall volume up 2x • Windows has gained volume and market share • Unix has maintained volume, lost market share • Macintosh has lost volume and market share • Estimated developer community: > 500,000

  8. Level of experience: None: 21% Beginner: 35% Intermediate: 28% Advanced: 16% Other Tcl developers in your group/company: 0: 38% 1-3: 38% 4-9: 16% 10-19: 5% 20-49: 2% 50+: 2% Why did you start using Tcl? I read about it: 45% A friend told me: 22% My company uses it: 15% School project: 5% Other: 13% Primary use of Tcl: Company: 41% Hobby: 24% Research: 19% School: 8% Consulting: 8% Tcl Demographics Results from recent survey (~ 5000 Tcl downloaders):

  9. Tcl Usage Tcl has become popular in several “verticals”: • Dynamic Web content generation:AOL, CNET, Travelocity, Vignette • Finance (many Wall Street firms) • Automated testing:Cisco, Motorola, Newbridge Networks • System management/factory automation:Nations Bank, Motorola • Electronic design automation:Cadence, Synopsys, Mentor, Analogy, etc.

  10. Scriptics Corporation • Founded in January, 1998 by John Ousterhout and Sarah Daniels. • Financed by “angel” investors: • Andy Bechtolsheim (founder of Sun, Granite) • Pehong Chen (founder/CEO of BroadVision) • Several others • Half of Sun team joined us • Currently 14 people • Expect 30-40 people within a year • First product shipping now: TclPro 1.0

  11. Balance between open source and commercial development Continue evolution of open source Tcl/Tk core Create commercial products: Development tools Enhanced Tcl platform Professional services: Support, training, consulting Covers Tcl core and bundledextensions as well as tools and proprietary extensions Scriptics Business Model Proprietary extensions Bundled open source extensions Tools Services Open source Tcl core

  12. Business Strategy • Phase I: meet needs of existing Tcl developers • TclPro: general purpose, mostly tools • Services: training, support, consulting • Win market leaders in selected verticals as customers • Phase II: extend Tcl platform • Proprietary platform extensions (COM, CORBA, XML, …) • Higher-level solutions in verticals • Leverage market leaders

  13. TclPro 1.0 First step towards an IDE for Tcl: • TclPro Debugger: source-level debugger with nice GUI • TclPro Checker: find errors without running application • TclPro Wrapper: create self-contained applications for distribution • TclPro Compiler: protect your source code • Precompiled Tcl/Tk 8.0.3 core libraries plus bundled extensions: • [incr Tcl] 3.0, [incr Tk], [incr Widget]

  14. Future Plans for TclPro • Additional development tools: • Profiler • Test coverage tools • A GUI builder for Tk • Smart Tcl code editor • Project management tools • Support for key enterprise protocols & frameworks • Java, ActiveX, CORBA, Web, XML, etc. • More widgets for Tk • Bundle more of the popular Tcl extensions • Support more platforms (Linux!)

  15. Open Source Products and Services • Tcl 8.0.3 • Many bug fixes • Core support for [incr Tcl] extension • Released September, 1998 • Tcl Resource Center • Easy access to all Tcl resources on the Internet: • Free downloads • Commercial products, services • Documentation • Other Web sites • News, events, etc. • Catalyst for user contributions • Freely available now at www.scriptics.com

  16. Make our products attractive enough that many Tcl developers choose to buy them Evolve open source Tcl rapidly enough to satisfy Tcl developers who don’t use our products Scriptics’ Long-Term Challenge Scriptics

  17. Symbiosis Open source and commercial activities support each other: • Open source Tcl core is Scriptics’ entry-level product: attracts new users • Resource Center helps Scriptics reach potential customers • Profits from Scriptics products allow us to improve open source Tcl • Resource Center benefits Tcl community • Bundled extensions provide leverage for open source developers

  18. Tcl is widely used, not often heard about Scriptics goal: raise Tcl visibility 2 major PR events in 1998: Company launch (July) TclPro product launch (September) Focus for PR: 50% on Tcl/scripting 50% on company/product Briefed both press and industry analysts Generated substantial press: ComputerWorld, InfoWorld, EE Times, Inter@ctive Week, SunWorld Online, Web Vantage, Network World, TechWeb, Developer.com, Application Development Trends, ENT, ... More press coming Marketing Tcl

  19. Messages for Tcl PR • Company launch: • Scripting vs. system programming (white paper) • Articles mostly written about open source company • Product launch: • Reworked message: integration applications • Strong positive reception from analysts and press

  20. The Business Problem: Integration • Companies have diverse collections of resources: • Devices: manufacturing equipment, test equipment, etc. • Applications: Web servers, ERP, EDA, etc. • Data sources: live feeds, databases, Web, etc. • Data formats: HTML, XML, etc. • Protocols: CORBA, DCOM, HTTP, etc. • Components: ActiveX, JavaBeans, etc. • The integration problem: how to link, coordinate, manage, and customize these resources

  21. Dynamic Web content generation AOL, Travelocity.com, CNET: must link to multiple databases and apps to create customized Web pages Networked control of devices Cisco, Newbridge: must coordinate multiple pieces of test equipment for automated testing Motorola: must coordinate manufacturing equipment Heterogeneous networks and environments Nations Bank: must manage diverse systems inherited from mergers Healthdyne Information Systems: must communicate between incompatible hospital subsystems Electronic data interchange Financial services: must monitor many data feeds, selectively transmit information to traders Heterogeneity is increasing over time Drivers for Integration Applications and Tcl

  22. Integration Applications • Different characteristics than traditional programming tasks: • Driving problem is linkage/coordination, not algorithms and data structures • Must support a variety of interfaces, protocols, formats • Loosely coupled/distributed • Often involves automating business processes • Requires rapid/unpredictable evolution • Often involves less sophisticated programmers • Traditional system programming languages (C, C++, Java) poorly suited to integration: • Too static, inflexible: compiled, strongly typed

  23. Tcl’s Unique Advantages A superior platform for integration applications: • Easy to connect any X to Y • Write scripts to manage in powerful ways • Tcl provides 5-10x faster development thanC, C++, Java Tcl Interpreter X Y

  24. The Tcl Platform Test equipment • Create Tcl extensions: apps, devices, protocols appear as new Tcl commands. • Write Tcl scripts to integrate, extend • Build business rules, GUIs as Tcl scripts XML Display Tk(GUIs) DCOM Extensible, embeddable Tcl interpreter SECS (IC mfg) SAP CORBA TIB Sybase Web Result: powerful, programmable platform for integration, management SNMP Oracle

  25. Embedding Tcl • Link Tcl interpreter into application • Expose application features as Tcl extensions • Write Tcl scripts to automate, customize, extend application • Use Tcl extensions to integrate with other apps and protocols Application Display Tk Tcl Interpreter Web DCOM Result: powerful, flexible applications Oracle

  26. Future Marketing/PR Efforts • Scriptics will continue to work for greater Tcl visibility • Goal: make Tcl well known at CIO level • How can you help? • Tell your friends • Tell your boss’s boss • Write papers • Give talks • Scriptics speakers program: • Tell us what Tcl topics you’d like to speak on • Our PR firm will look for opportunities and help make arrangements for you

  27. Planning for the Future • Tcl/Tk 8.1: • Work resuming now • Final release targeted for Q1 1999 • TclPro: • TclPro 1.0.1 planned for Q4 1998 • TclPro 1.1 planned for Q1 1999 • Come to TclPro BOF tomorrow for details • Tcl/Tk 8.2: • Probable release date: late 1999 or early 2000 • Just starting to think about features • Open read access to Tcl and Tk workspaces: • Coming soon to cvs.scriptics.com

  28. New Feature Survey • Polled Tcl/Tk community with survey • Interposed in download path for Tcl 8.0, Tcl 8.1 • Also available from Scriptics home page • >5000 surveys filled out over 3 weeks • Demographic data • New feature needs: • Rate importance of various new features (1-5) • Rate for today, 1-2 years from now • Results tabulated: • % of respondents with rating 4-5 for 1-2 years from now • Average rating for 1-2 years from now

  29. Drag and drop 60%, 3.7 New widgets 58%, 3.6 GUI builder 55%, 3.5 Windows perf. 49%, 3.3 Tk testing tools 48%, 3.3 Java integration 48%, 3.3 Code editor 46%, 3.2 Profiling/test cov. 46%, 3.3 Widget inspector 43%, 3.2 CORBA 40%, 3.0 XML 39%, 3.0 Megawidgets 39%, 3.1 ActiveX 24%, 2.4 DCOM 19%, 2.3 Experts Megawidgets 60%, 3.7  GUI builder 41%, 3.1  Code editor 33%, 2.8  Beginners Code editor 50%, 3.3  SurveyResults:

  30. Survey Results, cont’d • Surprises from surveys: • Top items are all related to Tk • Not much interest in ActiveX, DCOM • Likely future directions: • Lots of improvements to Tk • Support for new protocols • New tools

  31. Conclusions • Tcl usage continues to grow rapidly • Several great things happened in the last year: • New releases, extensions • Tcl Consortium • Scriptics • Open source software became respectable • More great things will happen in the future: • Increasing mainstream acceptance of Tcl • Improvements in Tcl/Tk core • More tools and commercial services • Scriptics will work to foster open source Tcl community as well as products

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