Programming language besides Tcl where everything is string

Question

Are there any programming languages where everything is a string. For example, let's consider this Tcl snippet (comments shows the equivalent statement in C/Java) for e.g.

set x [append ab cd] ;# c = "ab" + "cd"
set m 1 ;# m = 1
set n [expr $m + 1] ;# n = m + 1

Effectively, this is reverse of what is found in languages like C or Java; here by default what we type is a literal string unless it is a "special" word or preceded by $ sign (in which case, the string succeeding $ is a variable).

Answer 1

Rexx (Restructured Extended Executor) and OORexx are two languages with the same philosophy:

In Rexx -- somewhat like in TCL -- to a large extent everything is a string. Having stacks and streams composed of lines gives you a simple list or array of strings. But mostly, strings simply act like other datatypes as needed. For example, a string that contains a suitable representation of a number (digits, decimal, an exponent "e", etc.) can be used in arithmetic operations. For processing reports, log files, and the like, this is exactly the behavior you want.

*nix has many such mini-languages. For example:

• sed
• tr
• cut
• paste
• join
• fmt
• split
• pr
• fold

References

• ANSI X3J18-199X Standard for Rexx (pdf)
• Rexx Functions – Standard vs Non-Standard
• GNU Coreutils
• Tokenize a String: tr
• FizzBuzz: sed
• CSV to HTML translation: sed
• GUI Scripting: JavaScript, Smalltalk, Tcl, AutoHotkey: Arrays - Hyperpolyglot