GMV, http://www.gmv.com, is a spanish company providing high-tech solutions for the aerospace and defense markets. GMV has been using Tcl extensively from 1994, where it was identified as the perfect solution for the development of a data entry and manipulation system in the context of the ORATOS program [1], a spacecraft flight dynamics support system for the European Space Agency. The key issues were integration with legacy programs (FORTRAN and C) and the ability to build user interfaces on-the-fly, areas where Tcl and Tk shine.

From then on, Tcl/Tk has become one of the cornerstones which has allowed us to keep the competitive edge. GMV has used Tcl/Tk in many ways, including:

• The user interface and automation system of the orbital operations of one of the world three biggest satellite operators (where, incidentally, we ported it to the Open VMS operating system and added features particular to that platform such as logical name translation)
• The user interfaces of many software systems
• The development of regression testing suites
• the implementation of a very high level language for space operations (SOL, the Spacecraft Operations Language)

More recently Tcl/Tk has been selected as the reference technology for the company products. In this context we are in the initial stages of a very ambitious program. Tclers welcome!

Contact: Juan-Carlos Gil

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