On the Survivability of Tcl/Tk for SYS

Abstract

The Software Engineering Institute (SEI(SM)) was called on recently to examine a system, hereafter called SYS, written entirely in the Tool Control Language/Toolkit (Tcl/Tk) language. In response to some negative comments in the SEI's report, the developers presented a list of systems purported to demonstrate the viability of Tcl/Tk as a development tool. A review of the 67 listed systems found that Tcl/Tk is indeed practical for developing large systems. Small systems written in the language often follow a paradigm of 'classic Tcl/Tk windows.' SYS embraced this approach to the extent of involving hundreds of windows. The review showed that no other large system written in Tcl/Tk has anywhere near as many such windows. User interviews suggested that the number of different windows was indeed a problem. SYS should consider an alternative design, perhaps a Web-based approach. Some design criteria are described at the end of the report.

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Feb 01, 2003
Accession Number
ADA412319

Entities

People

  • Wilfred J. Hansen

Organizations

  • Carnegie Mellon University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Cyber
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Application Software
  • Basic Programming Language
  • Computer Programming
  • Computer Programs
  • Computing System Architectures
  • Debugging
  • Department Of Defense
  • Design Criteria
  • Engineering
  • Graphical User Interface
  • Language
  • Software Design
  • Software Development
  • Standards
  • User Interface
  • Web Browsers
  • Websites

Fields of Study

  • Computer science

Readers

  • Educational Psychology
  • Software Engineering.
  • Systems Analysis and Design