Programming the Cell Processor: For Games, Graphics, and Computation

Appendix E. A Brief Introduction to Tcl

There’s no getting around it. If you intend to use IBM’s Full System Simulator (SystemSim) for nontrivial simulation, you need to know Tcl, the Tool Command Language. In the past, Tcl made me very uncomfortable: It’s wordy like a regular high-level language, but the words have no structure—no commas, parentheses, semicolons, or equal signs. But as I learned Tcl, I realized that its bothersome aspects were really strengths. I’ve since developed a great deal of respect for the language.

This appendix isn’t going to present Tcl in full. The goal is to explain enough of the topic so that you can read and write scripts that take full advantage of SystemSim’s capabilities. Throughout this treatment, I’ll do my ...