One benefit of a compiler can be the obfuscation of business secrets implemented in the algorithms of program code, if the user only receives the compiled program. If this consideration is unimportant, a scripting language can be advantageous because it makes the current code accessible. One disadvantage of scripting languages, however, is that the interpreter needs to be installed on the target system and available for all required platforms.

The Tcl/Tk scripting language has been on the market, but hiding its light under a bushel, for more than 20 years. Its advantages are ease of learning, high speed of execution, and availability on different computer platforms.

Under normal circumstances, Tcl/Tk always needs an interpreter. However, if you want to avoid installing the interpreter, you can turn to Tclkit, an executable that contains a Tcl interpreter and the entire run-time environment in a packed virtual filesystem. Tclkit is available for various platforms and is capable of interpreting both Tcl files and Starkits. A special mechanism makes it possible to link a Starkit with a Tclkit and create a platform-dependent executable file called a Starpack. In this article, I explain exactly how this happens.

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