Press Release

Tcl finds a home

ActiveState supports open source programming language

VANCOUVER, Feb. 26 /PRNewswire/ - ActiveState, the leader in open source programming languages, announced today the addition of Tcl to the languages they support. In addition to providing supported versions of Tcl, core Tcl consulting and Tcl development tools, ActiveState will also soon be hosting the primary Tcl community website.

Tcl (Tool Command Language, pronounced ``tickle'') is a high level programming language that is cross-platform, open source, easy to use, embeddable and extensible. As a scripting language it excels at automating routine chores and extending applications. Tcl is also well suited for creating simple, yet powerful, graphical user interfaces (GUIs) with the Tk toolkit.

Tcl has approximately 500,000 users. Tcl's flexibility, ease of use, and power has made it popular amongst numerous blue chip companies such as: AOL, Cisco, Newbridge Networks, and Healtheon.

``I'm delighted to see ActiveState fill the void in corporate support for Tcl,'' said John Ousterhout, creator of Tcl. ``Their expertise with other scripting languages puts them in an excellent position to lead to future development of Tcl. I'm looking forward to working with them.''

``Given the widespread use of Tcl in enterprise environments, we see a need for providing a similar level of support and services for Tcl, comparable to our support of Perl and Python,'' said Dick Hardt, ActiveState founder & CEO.

As part of this initiative, prominent Tcl developer, Jeff Hobbs, has joined ActiveState as the Tcl technical lead. Jeff is the maintainer of the Tk Usage FAQ and is a program committee member for the USENIX Tcl/Tk Conference. Previously Jeff was with Scriptics, where he was the Tcl ambassador, responsible for liaising with the Tcl community and managing development of the Tcl core.

``I'm keen to continue working full time on Tcl development,'' said Jeff Hobbs, Senior Developer, ActiveState. ``This is great news for the Tcl community since ActiveState can devote significant resources to Tcl development.''

About ActiveState:

ActiveState is at the forefront of open source software, providing Internet programming products and services for all popular operating systems and platforms. ActiveState's key technologies are: Perl, the Internet's most popular programming language; Python and Tcl, user-friendly scripting languages; PHP, the dynamic Web programming language; and XSLT, the XML transformation language. ActiveState solutions provide enterprise-wide deployment of open source programming languages, improved programmer productivity, and seamless integration with other technologies. For more information please visit: http://www.ActiveState.com.

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