Tcl is the single best language
SysAds can learn. Scotty is the best open-source SNMP
package; it's simply indispensable (even though largely
unmaintained for a couple of years). Expect is an even
greater necessity for SysAds--all SysAds should know
about it, and use it, and no other language offers anything
nearly as convenient. Finally, Tcl/Tk gives the
easiest, most natural way to build the tiny little
control panels Leam was describing, and that can revolutionize
daily life for SysAds. In principle, Perl/Tk
and Tkinter (and comparable for Ruby, Scheme, ...) have
all the same functionality, and even more (the other
panelists will talk about Pmw and such), but they just
aren't as easy to install and deploy. TclKit gives
all the advantages of single-file deployment.

In everything else--database access, 'net protocols,
maintainability...--reasonable people can argue about
who's really on top. Expect, Tcl/Tk, TclKit, and Scotty
make Tcl an easy choice, though. Really. It's just
that almost no one knows that, even after the better
part of a decade of Expect and Tk proselytization.

This is a good point to mention Expect again.
It has a simply phenomenal record in several
regards. One is this: no matter what question
people ask Don, his answer always is (I exaggerate
only slightly), "It's in the book." He's always
right; somewhere in the book, PUBLISHED OVER
SEVEN YEARS AGO, are all the answers to questions
Expect programmers have. There are rocks less
solid than that.