7 ms·

Develop Cross-Platform CLI and GUI Tools with Tcl/Tk

112 points by aryonoco 17d ago

gt0 15d ago
Tcl/Tk was the first "grown up" language I used after using variants of BASIC up until the mid to late nineties. I bought a used Sun Ultra 1 and Tcl/Tk was like a vision of the future compared to BASIC. I still sort of want to use it again, but can't quite find a reason to do so.
so-cal-schemer 15d ago
Who else here read Philip and Alex's Guide to Web Publishing, used AOLserver, or attended an ArsDigita workshop or ADuni? Chapter 10: Sites That Are Really Programs https://philip.greenspun.com/panda/server-programming https://philip.greenspun.com/panda/server-programming
- so-cal-schemer 14d ago
  Tcl for Web Nerds by Hal Abelson, Philip Greenspun, and Lydia Sandon https://philip.greenspun.com/tcl/ https://philip.greenspun.com/tcl/ If in reading this introduction, you've come to realize that "Hey, Tcl is just like Lisp, but without a brain, and with syntax on steroids", you might wonder why Lisp isn't a more popular scripting language than Tcl. Lisp hasn't been a complete failure, by the way; it is used as an extension language by users of some popular programs, notably AutoCAD. But Tcl has been much more successful. It has been compiled into hundreds of larger programs, including AOLserver, which is why we wrote this book. As a software developer, you're unlikely to get rich. So you might as well try to get through your life in such a way that you make a difference to the world. Tcl illustrates one way: make something that is simple enough for almost everyone to understand give away your source code explain how to weave your source code in with other systems ...
mbirth 17d ago
Fun fact: macOS hex editor "Hex Fiend" uses Tcl for its templating language: https://github.com/HexFiend/HexFiend/tree/master/templates https://github.com/HexFiend/HexFiend/tree/master/templates
- superdisk 16d ago
  The industry standard VFX compositing tool Nuke also uses Tcl for its expressions and save format, it's all Tcl terms as I recall. My brother did VFX for a while and I was amused when he was having some trouble with an expression and I was like "it's a Tcl system... I know this" and helped him.
piloto_ciego 17d ago
Tkinter or other Tk based GUI interfaces are the immediate tool I reach for whenever I build something that's not in the CLI or in the browser. My general "daily driver" is python and I love that I can just spin up a cross-platform tool immediately with it. Tcl/Tk rule and are insanely useful.
- em-bee 17d ago
  how is your experience with the problems with Tk and python as described in the article?
  - piloto_ciego 17d ago
    Well, they talk about the "barebones" Tcl version - tbh, I didn't even really know that was an issue in Python, and he is right that you have to remember to install it, and basically whenever I get a new computer I screw it up the first time until I remember the right incantations to spew at pip install or apt install to get it to work? So, "sure," there are some issues there. And to be fair, trying to do modern kind of interfaces with Tkinter in python and ttk can be kind of tricky/impossible? The part about it being "awkward" is definitely true. But it's "good enough" like 99% of the time? And going from 0 to "something with a button a user can click" is crazy easy. At my old job, before I started working for myself, I built some painfully sprawling python script to: 1) Spin up a selenium browser to access something in servicenow that they wouldn't let us query the API for but required we access 2) Control the downloading of a bunch of files from a tk interface from python 3) toggle various settings and parse through a bunch of downloaded spreadsheets from there and another website that had some data on 4) python and matplotlib then drew pretty pictures for management 5) python then spit out documents and charts in various formats 6) then a button click triggered it all to process in parallel and opened an email to the appropriate managers that I fire off This turned something like 10-40 hours of manual work (depending on how well you knew how to do it) where you were clicking and reading into like a 15 min job that I could do on the first of the month while I drank my coffee. I'm sure it would probably be "better" to write the whole program in Tcl/tk, but sometimes I am lazy. Also, if I'm doing something with pandas or AI and the tk gui is just something slapped over the underlying logic and code. I guess it's a matter of preference? But tkinter is "pretty good" and often "pretty good" is way better than perfect. They say in the article something like, "if you don't need to call python libraries just use tcl/tk" or whatever. And that's fair, but honestly, being able to throw pandas at something or matplotlib or whatever is super valuable. I think in the future maybe it'll be easy to do something like, "claude please port matplotlib into tcl" and then you can do it natively, that would make sense? Or maybe even like they say it might be cool to make a python script then call it from tcl like they say? but multiple scripts in different languages seems like a bit of a maintenance headache? Though that also might be just a skill issue on my part lol. It might be lazy of me but staying in one language has some advantages, namely, I don't need all the boilerplate argparse code for each thing in python I might want to write. When I wrote the monstrosity above, I didn't really know anything about tcl/tk other than "isn't that that archaic ui thing?" I actually played around with raw tcl during the process of writing that beast, but that was mostly just for fun. I guess my real response is, if I end up in a knife fight with a GUI layer over python again, the way they describe in there might be what I do? Calling the python from the tcl might be the optimal choice? It'd be fine to stretch the brain in a slightly different direction anyway.
em-bee 17d ago
the problem with Tcl/Tk is Tcl. the author does write about the quirks and problems, so this is a good article, but the end of it is that Tcl is simply not a language that i am interested in mastering. just like shell scripting. i'll use it if i have to, but it is not my preference. and as the article also mentions what makes the apps cross platform is the native or near-native GUI. and apparently Tk is good for that. but i'd rather use a nicer language with it. again, the article does talk about python, and points out that the Tk bindings in python are simply not good enough. that was very insightful, and i am glad to know. however i would like to know if any other languages do better here. what about go for example? has anyone tried Tk with other languages and can share some experience?
- mbirth 17d ago
  I wonder whether Delphi/Lazarus would be better suited for a native GUI on each platform. But you’d have to compile your app for each separately.
  - neverartful 16d ago
    I think Lazarus is a nice way to make native GUIs on each platform. It's underrated.
tehologist 17d ago
I take issue with the only 100 MB footprint, that is still pretty big when consider fasm, tcc and rebol are all closer to 1 meg.
- tnelsond4 17d ago
  Yeah, 100mb is not a bragging point. That's the size of a full web browser engine
  - graemep 16d ago
    its common for a single browser tab to use more than that.
- graemep 16d ago
  1MB memory usage for a GUI app with a bunch of packages installed? If you are talking about the size of the TCL/Tk static binaries they are a few MB to judge by the zipkit downloads linked to.
vincent-manis 17d ago
I use Tk routinely in Scheme; there is no Tcl in my code, but Tk is a very nice (though basic) GUI kit, and my programs work on Linux, BSD, MacOS, and Windows. Other commenters have mentioned that Python ships with Tkinter, a library module that interfaces to Tk. I believe Ruby does the same. Hell, if you're programming in Cobol, you can have Tk (as long as your Cobol allows you to call C). You do not have to love Tcl to love Tcl/Tk.
- so-cal-schemer 15d ago
  A collection of Tk resources for Scheme: https://wiki.tcl-lang.org/page/Scheme https://wiki.tcl-lang.org/page/Scheme This is quite old, but I always remember seeing it in the BSD packages collection: https://conservatory.scheme.org/stk/ https://conservatory.scheme.org/stk/ Then there is Portable Scheme / Tk, a library for several Scheme implementations: https://wiki.call-cc.org/eggref/5/pstk https://wiki.call-cc.org/eggref/5/pstk PS/Tk provides an interface to the Tk toolkit, and is an effective tool for creating graphical interfaces. (import pstk) (tk-start) (tk/pack (tk 'create-widget 'button 'text: "Hello" 'command: (lambda () (display "Hello world") (newline))) 'padx: 20 'pady: 20) (tk-event-loop) And a recent walk-through: Learn Scheme by Example: Tk GUI with Chicken Scheme https://blog.matthewdmiller.net/learn-scheme-by-example-tk-gui-with-chicken-scheme https://blog.matthewdmiller.net/learn-scheme-by-example-tk-g...
  - so-cal-schemer 15d ago
    https://cdn.netbsd.org/pub/pkgsrc/current/pkgsrc/lang/STk/index.html https://cdn.netbsd.org/pub/pkgsrc/current/pkgsrc/lang/STk/in... STk is a Scheme interpreter which can access to the Tk graphical package. Concretely it can be seen as the John Ousterhout's Tk package where the Tcl language has been replaced by Scheme. The Scheme interpreter is now R4RS conformant. This release provides an efficient object oriented system called STklos. STklos is a full OO system with multi-inheritance, generic functions, multi-methods and a true meta object protocol.
- em-bee 17d ago
  in what way is Tk basic? can you elaborate? also what are your thoughts on the issues with python as mentioned in the article? how do the scheme bindings compare?
drdexebtjl 17d ago
> Those GUI apps look native on Windows, Linux and macOS I don’t see how the author can write this with a straight face. The apps look like what native apps looked like in 2003.
- ronsor 17d ago
  Coincidentally the last time native apps were good.
- tnelsond4 17d ago
  Pretty sure tcl apps look ugly as sin... Python's tkinter is all tcl underneath.
  - hulitu 16d ago
    You should see Windows 11.
- fitsumbelay 17d ago
  > The apps look like what native apps looked like in 2003 you make that sound more like a bug than the feature it truly is
  - _factor 16d ago
    They also open just as fast! Near instantaneously! Yuck!
- andai 17d ago
  Does it look nicer on Windows than on Linux?
  - 1718627440 16d ago
    It does, it basically looks the same as every other program and opens the standard windows, like from Windows explorer. On Linux it kind looks weird.
- 16d ago
edoceo 17d ago
On Linux there is also this windowing shell `wish` which I've used for some very quick (and very very dirty) UIs
- ashenke 17d ago
  Do you have more information? It looks interesting
  - edoceo 17d ago
    I don't, but it was easy even before AI code. It's this one https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wish_(Unix_shell) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wish_(Unix_shell) - which turns out is Tcl. I used it to wrap up some socat and curl. Ugly stuff. Reading values from a serial device, show on screen until a button press when a value was sent over HTTP. The kind of code you hate but the management thinks is production ready. I found it because someone on Gentoo IRC was like: ?"if you hate yourself try this"?. Would have preferred to do the whole thing in Perl.
- a1o 17d ago
  I haven’t used myself but in Linux there is also zenity https://linux.die.net/man/1/zenity https://linux.die.net/man/1/zenity I have seen scripts that use it for a quick GUI. I really dislike using Powershell as a shell, but it looks like on Windows specifically it also has some gui thing that is somewhat similar to a .NET like zenity.
  - edoceo 16d ago
    This seems modal driven. Like calling MsgBox on windows. Wish (iirc) let me get multiple labels, input and buttons in an Hbox/Vbox type layout.
- 1718627440 16d ago
  This is for example use by the builtin Git GUI.
Ozzie-D 17d ago
[flagged]
fitsumbelay 17d ago
I appreciate this reminder that boring old tech is pretty fucking good tech; especially to your non-ReactJS-not-anti-ReactJS dev, here. The comments are also a helpful reminder of the various sw and visual design/GUI values folks hold. I personally never gotten past exploring Tkinter but like everything else I played with until I found reason to depend on it, that'll probably change since it's as available as vim and python and _that's_ the kind of thing I value. Limitations/constrains are the engineer's problem, not the tool's (unless they are the tool's problem (but even then, just be your natural creative self and roll with it))
jefflinwood 17d ago
I built a Tcl/TK GUI in 1997 and I thought that it (specifically Tcl) was dated then. If you're used to anything beyond shell scripting, Tcl feels very un-programming. It does look they added objects in 2012, I can't speak to that. Notwithstanding anything about LLM tools being able to do GUIs any way you want in 2026, I'd really consider just about anything else at this point. JavaFX, React Native, Electron, Flutter, etc.
inatreecrown2 16d ago
Some of these UIs look simpler and better / more user friendly to me than the latest offerings from Apple and Microsoft. Especially this: https://cgicoffee.com/blog/content/images/2026/tcl-tk-article/tcltk-9-on-orangepi-2w.png https://cgicoffee.com/blog/content/images/2026/tcl-tk-articl... Looks like OpenBox?
kooi 16d ago
Worked on a NASA ground control system written in Tk. It was a great way to learn about classic design pattern because we had to roll our own event reactors, observers, plugins. Honestly it feels very outdated compared to the reactive type of GUI's we have today. Maybe there are some nice wrappers now that help... I'd give a Rust based version a try. Just compile into a binary for your platform and off you go.
dragonfax 16d ago
I was an early adopter of the TiVo. You can hook up a terminal to those things. A dumb terminal or terminal software on your computer using your own serial port. There was a terminal/serial port in the back (baud 2600)that took the form of a 3/4" audio plug. It was a Linux system, but all their own software running on it was written in TCL. I don't think they were using TK though. Pretty fun to hack around with. Since it was connected to the phone line, when a call came in it could get the caller ID off the line and display it on the TV screen.
kelvinjps10 16d ago
It made me remember, me learning programing and building random GUIS app in tkinter and python.
lampcord 16d ago
Still find Tcl/Tk surprisingly effective for simple cross-platform GUI utilities. The `wish` shell was my go-to for quick internal tools.
self_awareness 16d ago
> Alas, the complexity of its meta-object compiler (MOC) Do these people use the same template when writing about GUIs? I mean what's complicated about MOC? In CMake it's even transparent and the user doesn't even see it. I swear, the same argument is coming back year after year. "MOC" is complicated, but the compiler itself and ld isn't?
- tosti 16d ago
  This. From 0 to a dialog with a button is quicker in qtdesigner.
crate_88 16d ago
[dead]
fdr 16d ago
A fun one: PostgreSQL uses an adopted version of Tcl's regular expression engine, written by Henry Spencer. Tom Lane seems to think it was an impressive piece of work, and patched it up from time to time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Spencer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Spencer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Lane_%28computer_scientist%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Lane_%28computer_scientist...
zvr 16d ago
Besides Tk and the ease of creating GUIs, Tcl has some unique advantages. As I have written before, a favorite of mine, which I have not found in other languages (besides LISP, obviously) is the ability to treat data as code combined with the existence of safe slave interpreters. This is extremely useful for configuration files: they can use some functions you have defined, but may also include arbitrary code. In order to load them, you simply fire up a safe slave interpreter to execute the code and you're done! Imagine a config file like: host machine.example.org port 9000 dbhost server.example.org This can obviously be manually parsed easily, but this is also valid Tcl code, if one has defined the functions "host", "port", and "dbhost". And this allows people to extend the config file to something like: set mydomain example.org set type prod host machine.$mydomain dbhost server.$mydomain if {$type == prod} { port 9000 } else { port 9999 } Having a "full-blown programming language" for free in config files is sometimes desirable. I'm writing much more Python than Tcl these days, but this is a feature I sorely miss. I keep looking for similar functionality in Python, but I am always disappointed. Starlark has been proposed in the past, but unfortunately it means you have to work with something different than Python (in developing, in deploying, etc.), doubling your dependencies.

112 points by aryonoco 17d ago

gt0 15d ago

Tcl/Tk was the first "grown up" language I used after using variants of BASIC up until the mid to late nineties. I bought a used Sun Ultra 1 and Tcl/Tk was like a vision of the future compared to BASIC. I still sort of want to use it again, but can't quite find a reason to do so.

so-cal-schemer 15d ago

Who else here read Philip and Alex's Guide to Web Publishing, used AOLserver, or attended an ArsDigita workshop or ADuni? Chapter 10: Sites That Are Really Programs https://philip.greenspun.com/panda/server-programming https://philip.greenspun.com/panda/server-programming

so-cal-schemer 14d ago
Tcl for Web Nerds by Hal Abelson, Philip Greenspun, and Lydia Sandon https://philip.greenspun.com/tcl/ https://philip.greenspun.com/tcl/ If in reading this introduction, you've come to realize that "Hey, Tcl is just like Lisp, but without a brain, and with syntax on steroids", you might wonder why Lisp isn't a more popular scripting language than Tcl. Lisp hasn't been a complete failure, by the way; it is used as an extension language by users of some popular programs, notably AutoCAD. But Tcl has been much more successful. It has been compiled into hundreds of larger programs, including AOLserver, which is why we wrote this book. As a software developer, you're unlikely to get rich. So you might as well try to get through your life in such a way that you make a difference to the world. Tcl illustrates one way: make something that is simple enough for almost everyone to understand give away your source code explain how to weave your source code in with other systems ...

mbirth 17d ago

Fun fact: macOS hex editor "Hex Fiend" uses Tcl for its templating language: https://github.com/HexFiend/HexFiend/tree/master/templates https://github.com/HexFiend/HexFiend/tree/master/templates

superdisk 16d ago
The industry standard VFX compositing tool Nuke also uses Tcl for its expressions and save format, it's all Tcl terms as I recall. My brother did VFX for a while and I was amused when he was having some trouble with an expression and I was like "it's a Tcl system... I know this" and helped him.

piloto_ciego 17d ago

Tkinter or other Tk based GUI interfaces are the immediate tool I reach for whenever I build something that's not in the CLI or in the browser. My general "daily driver" is python and I love that I can just spin up a cross-platform tool immediately with it. Tcl/Tk rule and are insanely useful.

em-bee 17d ago
how is your experience with the problems with Tk and python as described in the article?
- piloto_ciego 17d ago
  Well, they talk about the "barebones" Tcl version - tbh, I didn't even really know that was an issue in Python, and he is right that you have to remember to install it, and basically whenever I get a new computer I screw it up the first time until I remember the right incantations to spew at pip install or apt install to get it to work? So, "sure," there are some issues there. And to be fair, trying to do modern kind of interfaces with Tkinter in python and ttk can be kind of tricky/impossible? The part about it being "awkward" is definitely true. But it's "good enough" like 99% of the time? And going from 0 to "something with a button a user can click" is crazy easy. At my old job, before I started working for myself, I built some painfully sprawling python script to: 1) Spin up a selenium browser to access something in servicenow that they wouldn't let us query the API for but required we access 2) Control the downloading of a bunch of files from a tk interface from python 3) toggle various settings and parse through a bunch of downloaded spreadsheets from there and another website that had some data on 4) python and matplotlib then drew pretty pictures for management 5) python then spit out documents and charts in various formats 6) then a button click triggered it all to process in parallel and opened an email to the appropriate managers that I fire off This turned something like 10-40 hours of manual work (depending on how well you knew how to do it) where you were clicking and reading into like a 15 min job that I could do on the first of the month while I drank my coffee. I'm sure it would probably be "better" to write the whole program in Tcl/tk, but sometimes I am lazy. Also, if I'm doing something with pandas or AI and the tk gui is just something slapped over the underlying logic and code. I guess it's a matter of preference? But tkinter is "pretty good" and often "pretty good" is way better than perfect. They say in the article something like, "if you don't need to call python libraries just use tcl/tk" or whatever. And that's fair, but honestly, being able to throw pandas at something or matplotlib or whatever is super valuable. I think in the future maybe it'll be easy to do something like, "claude please port matplotlib into tcl" and then you can do it natively, that would make sense? Or maybe even like they say it might be cool to make a python script then call it from tcl like they say? but multiple scripts in different languages seems like a bit of a maintenance headache? Though that also might be just a skill issue on my part lol. It might be lazy of me but staying in one language has some advantages, namely, I don't need all the boilerplate argparse code for each thing in python I might want to write. When I wrote the monstrosity above, I didn't really know anything about tcl/tk other than "isn't that that archaic ui thing?" I actually played around with raw tcl during the process of writing that beast, but that was mostly just for fun. I guess my real response is, if I end up in a knife fight with a GUI layer over python again, the way they describe in there might be what I do? Calling the python from the tcl might be the optimal choice? It'd be fine to stretch the brain in a slightly different direction anyway.

em-bee 17d ago

the problem with Tcl/Tk is Tcl. the author does write about the quirks and problems, so this is a good article, but the end of it is that Tcl is simply not a language that i am interested in mastering. just like shell scripting. i'll use it if i have to, but it is not my preference. and as the article also mentions what makes the apps cross platform is the native or near-native GUI. and apparently Tk is good for that. but i'd rather use a nicer language with it. again, the article does talk about python, and points out that the Tk bindings in python are simply not good enough. that was very insightful, and i am glad to know. however i would like to know if any other languages do better here. what about go for example? has anyone tried Tk with other languages and can share some experience?

mbirth 17d ago
I wonder whether Delphi/Lazarus would be better suited for a native GUI on each platform. But you’d have to compile your app for each separately.
- neverartful 16d ago
  I think Lazarus is a nice way to make native GUIs on each platform. It's underrated.

tehologist 17d ago

I take issue with the only 100 MB footprint, that is still pretty big when consider fasm, tcc and rebol are all closer to 1 meg.

tnelsond4 17d ago
Yeah, 100mb is not a bragging point. That's the size of a full web browser engine
- graemep 16d ago
  its common for a single browser tab to use more than that.
graemep 16d ago
1MB memory usage for a GUI app with a bunch of packages installed? If you are talking about the size of the TCL/Tk static binaries they are a few MB to judge by the zipkit downloads linked to.

vincent-manis 17d ago

I use Tk routinely in Scheme; there is no Tcl in my code, but Tk is a very nice (though basic) GUI kit, and my programs work on Linux, BSD, MacOS, and Windows. Other commenters have mentioned that Python ships with Tkinter, a library module that interfaces to Tk. I believe Ruby does the same. Hell, if you're programming in Cobol, you can have Tk (as long as your Cobol allows you to call C). You do not have to love Tcl to love Tcl/Tk.

so-cal-schemer 15d ago
A collection of Tk resources for Scheme: https://wiki.tcl-lang.org/page/Scheme https://wiki.tcl-lang.org/page/Scheme This is quite old, but I always remember seeing it in the BSD packages collection: https://conservatory.scheme.org/stk/ https://conservatory.scheme.org/stk/ Then there is Portable Scheme / Tk, a library for several Scheme implementations: https://wiki.call-cc.org/eggref/5/pstk https://wiki.call-cc.org/eggref/5/pstk PS/Tk provides an interface to the Tk toolkit, and is an effective tool for creating graphical interfaces. (import pstk) (tk-start) (tk/pack (tk 'create-widget 'button 'text: "Hello" 'command: (lambda () (display "Hello world") (newline))) 'padx: 20 'pady: 20) (tk-event-loop) And a recent walk-through: Learn Scheme by Example: Tk GUI with Chicken Scheme https://blog.matthewdmiller.net/learn-scheme-by-example-tk-gui-with-chicken-scheme https://blog.matthewdmiller.net/learn-scheme-by-example-tk-g...
- so-cal-schemer 15d ago
  https://cdn.netbsd.org/pub/pkgsrc/current/pkgsrc/lang/STk/index.html https://cdn.netbsd.org/pub/pkgsrc/current/pkgsrc/lang/STk/in... STk is a Scheme interpreter which can access to the Tk graphical package. Concretely it can be seen as the John Ousterhout's Tk package where the Tcl language has been replaced by Scheme. The Scheme interpreter is now R4RS conformant. This release provides an efficient object oriented system called STklos. STklos is a full OO system with multi-inheritance, generic functions, multi-methods and a true meta object protocol.
em-bee 17d ago
in what way is Tk basic? can you elaborate? also what are your thoughts on the issues with python as mentioned in the article? how do the scheme bindings compare?

drdexebtjl 17d ago

> Those GUI apps look native on Windows, Linux and macOS I don’t see how the author can write this with a straight face. The apps look like what native apps looked like in 2003.

ronsor 17d ago
Coincidentally the last time native apps were good.
tnelsond4 17d ago
Pretty sure tcl apps look ugly as sin... Python's tkinter is all tcl underneath.
- hulitu 16d ago
  You should see Windows 11.
fitsumbelay 17d ago
> The apps look like what native apps looked like in 2003 you make that sound more like a bug than the feature it truly is
- _factor 16d ago
  They also open just as fast! Near instantaneously! Yuck!
andai 17d ago
Does it look nicer on Windows than on Linux?
- 1718627440 16d ago
  It does, it basically looks the same as every other program and opens the standard windows, like from Windows explorer. On Linux it kind looks weird.
16d ago

edoceo 17d ago

On Linux there is also this windowing shell `wish` which I've used for some very quick (and very very dirty) UIs

ashenke 17d ago
Do you have more information? It looks interesting
- edoceo 17d ago
  I don't, but it was easy even before AI code. It's this one https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wish_(Unix_shell) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wish_(Unix_shell) - which turns out is Tcl. I used it to wrap up some socat and curl. Ugly stuff. Reading values from a serial device, show on screen until a button press when a value was sent over HTTP. The kind of code you hate but the management thinks is production ready. I found it because someone on Gentoo IRC was like: ?"if you hate yourself try this"?. Would have preferred to do the whole thing in Perl.
a1o 17d ago
I haven’t used myself but in Linux there is also zenity https://linux.die.net/man/1/zenity https://linux.die.net/man/1/zenity I have seen scripts that use it for a quick GUI. I really dislike using Powershell as a shell, but it looks like on Windows specifically it also has some gui thing that is somewhat similar to a .NET like zenity.
- edoceo 16d ago
  This seems modal driven. Like calling MsgBox on windows. Wish (iirc) let me get multiple labels, input and buttons in an Hbox/Vbox type layout.
1718627440 16d ago
This is for example use by the builtin Git GUI.

Ozzie-D 17d ago

[flagged]

fitsumbelay 17d ago

I appreciate this reminder that boring old tech is pretty fucking good tech; especially to your non-ReactJS-not-anti-ReactJS dev, here. The comments are also a helpful reminder of the various sw and visual design/GUI values folks hold. I personally never gotten past exploring Tkinter but like everything else I played with until I found reason to depend on it, that'll probably change since it's as available as vim and python and _that's_ the kind of thing I value. Limitations/constrains are the engineer's problem, not the tool's (unless they are the tool's problem (but even then, just be your natural creative self and roll with it))

jefflinwood 17d ago

I built a Tcl/TK GUI in 1997 and I thought that it (specifically Tcl) was dated then. If you're used to anything beyond shell scripting, Tcl feels very un-programming. It does look they added objects in 2012, I can't speak to that. Notwithstanding anything about LLM tools being able to do GUIs any way you want in 2026, I'd really consider just about anything else at this point. JavaFX, React Native, Electron, Flutter, etc.

inatreecrown2 16d ago

Some of these UIs look simpler and better / more user friendly to me than the latest offerings from Apple and Microsoft. Especially this: https://cgicoffee.com/blog/content/images/2026/tcl-tk-article/tcltk-9-on-orangepi-2w.png https://cgicoffee.com/blog/content/images/2026/tcl-tk-articl... Looks like OpenBox?

kooi 16d ago

Worked on a NASA ground control system written in Tk. It was a great way to learn about classic design pattern because we had to roll our own event reactors, observers, plugins. Honestly it feels very outdated compared to the reactive type of GUI's we have today. Maybe there are some nice wrappers now that help... I'd give a Rust based version a try. Just compile into a binary for your platform and off you go.

dragonfax 16d ago

I was an early adopter of the TiVo. You can hook up a terminal to those things. A dumb terminal or terminal software on your computer using your own serial port. There was a terminal/serial port in the back (baud 2600)that took the form of a 3/4" audio plug. It was a Linux system, but all their own software running on it was written in TCL. I don't think they were using TK though. Pretty fun to hack around with. Since it was connected to the phone line, when a call came in it could get the caller ID off the line and display it on the TV screen.

kelvinjps10 16d ago

It made me remember, me learning programing and building random GUIS app in tkinter and python.

lampcord 16d ago

Still find Tcl/Tk surprisingly effective for simple cross-platform GUI utilities. The `wish` shell was my go-to for quick internal tools.

self_awareness 16d ago

> Alas, the complexity of its meta-object compiler (MOC) Do these people use the same template when writing about GUIs? I mean what's complicated about MOC? In CMake it's even transparent and the user doesn't even see it. I swear, the same argument is coming back year after year. "MOC" is complicated, but the compiler itself and ld isn't?

tosti 16d ago
This. From 0 to a dialog with a button is quicker in qtdesigner.

crate_88 16d ago

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fdr 16d ago

A fun one: PostgreSQL uses an adopted version of Tcl's regular expression engine, written by Henry Spencer. Tom Lane seems to think it was an impressive piece of work, and patched it up from time to time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Spencer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Spencer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Lane_%28computer_scientist%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Lane_%28computer_scientist...

zvr 16d ago

Besides Tk and the ease of creating GUIs, Tcl has some unique advantages. As I have written before, a favorite of mine, which I have not found in other languages (besides LISP, obviously) is the ability to treat data as code combined with the existence of safe slave interpreters. This is extremely useful for configuration files: they can use some functions you have defined, but may also include arbitrary code. In order to load them, you simply fire up a safe slave interpreter to execute the code and you're done! Imagine a config file like: host machine.example.org port 9000 dbhost server.example.org This can obviously be manually parsed easily, but this is also valid Tcl code, if one has defined the functions "host", "port", and "dbhost". And this allows people to extend the config file to something like: set mydomain example.org set type prod host machine.$mydomain dbhost server.$mydomain if {$type == prod} { port 9000 } else { port 9999 } Having a "full-blown programming language" for free in config files is sometimes desirable. I'm writing much more Python than Tcl these days, but this is a feature I sorely miss. I keep looking for similar functionality in Python, but I am always disappointed. Starlark has been proposed in the past, but unfortunately it means you have to work with something different than Python (in developing, in deploying, etc.), doubling your dependencies.