why did these companies choose Tcl over Python

[Kryvor]

> As an electronics engineer I use some very expensive EDA CAD tool
> programs that are scriptable using Tcl.  I was wondering why these
> companies have choose to use Tcl instead of Python.   Some of these
> are:
>
>    Mentor Graphics ModelTech VHDL and Verilog simulator
>    Synopsys  Design Compiler and Primetime Static Timing Analyzer
>    ActelFPGA tools.


I suspect that it's due to historical reasons.

TCL first appeared in 1988, whereas Python appeared in 1991.  Some of
these tools have been around for a very long time, and I suspect that,
at first, it was mostly a question of picking the most popular
scripting language; decisions made in recent years are probably more
for convenience & backward-compatibility reasons than anything else.

(That said, I'm not a huge fan of Python's lack of braces ... :)

K.