[vtkusers] Tcl v's Python for VTK App?

[Prabhu Ramachandran]

>>>>> "GL" == Goodwin Lawlor <goodwin.lawlor at ucd.ie> writes:

    GL> I'd very much appreciate some comments from the list on which
    GL> is the better scripting language for a VTK app with a Tk GUI.

At the risk of starting a language war I'd heartily recommend Python.
Here's why:

  (1) Python is extremely easy to learn and has a very simple syntax.
  Python code is usually very readable.  Also, as someone said on a
  Python newsgroup - "I like Python because it fits my brain." :)

  (2) It has one of the best and neatest interpreters you can think
  of.  I dont know about the Tcl interpreter and if it is as powerful.

  (3) Its built for OOP. its not as if OOP is an after thought. 

  (4) The VTK-Python bindings are excellent thanks to a lot of great
  work by David Gobbi.

  (5) You could use Python + VTK + other toolkits too.  Right now
  Tkinter, pyGTK and wxPython work.  Getting more to work shouldnt be
  too hard.  I dont know if this is true of Tcl.

  (6) Apart from these Python itself is extremely powerful with a
  whole host of extremely useful and powerful modules.  

  (7) Python is the future, and its here to stay.  Lots of folks are
  moving towards Python so you will certainly see lot more development
  and more modules being built for it.

I am not saying Tcl isnt good but this is only my preference.

That said, you will find more Tcl than Python examples for VTK.  But
they usually arent too hard to figure out.

prabhu