ActiveState Adds Expect for Windows to ActiveTcl

Jeff Hobbs writes to the Tcl-announce mailing list that ActiveState has added Expect for Windows to ActiveTcl (Press Release). From the announcement, you can now go and download ActiveTcl 8.4.11 (for Windows) with Expect for Windows, for free.

Typically, only Unix system administrators have known about Expect and it’s ability simplify routine tasks through automation. Now, their Windows-laden counterparts can hopefully start to enjoy the same benefits. I’m hoping this will create an increase in the number of people learning the Tcl programming language, which happens to be one of my favorites. Maybe it could even lead to more folks getting interested in AOLserver again.

According to the announcement, ActiveState’s Expect for Windows is based on Expect 5.43, and “ActiveState will be working with the community to open source Expect for Windows in the near future.” This is great news — ActiveState has always maintained a strong committment to support and maintain its involvement in the open source community. Once those changes are integrated back into the open source version of Expect, I’m hoping a new build of Tclkit for Win32 won’t be far behind.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all the folks at ActiveState and in the open source community who have collectively made this all possible. It’s great to be a part of something so wonderful.

Comments

  1. Dude, you’re like freaking Don Quixote, tilting at windmills.

    Tcl is OK, Expect is fun.

    But man, if your goal is to “lead to more folks getting interested in AOLserver again”, you should do it in Python or Ruby.

  2. Unfortunately, neither Python nor Ruby are thread-safe, which makes embedding themselves inside a multi-threaded webserver a non-option.

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