As for why Tcl won't just up and die, see the SQLite testing thread. Tcl's built like that too, and built well: native threads, Unicode, a very extensive C API. Definitely some pieces missing (OO), but they are being actively worked on. In other words, Tcl is not the most popular thing out there by a long shot, but it's not "dying" either.
I don't think this is a very valid comparison. Sourceforge is not popular as a repository for a number of the more "modern" languages, and seems to focus more on "end user ready" projects than modules, plug-ins, etc, which is perhaps the primary delivery format for projects in the script-y languages.<p>Even if you included more repositories, though, still - what's the point? It's good to see trends, yes, but at least try and keep them in the same general domain. No-one is going to be making a choice between developing in C or in Ruby; they are different worlds in so many ways. And even counting projects is a bad metric in itself; someone starting a C project might be expected to have some reason for doing so, and thus he might be likely to at least half-finish it; Ruby "projects" are so easy to start that many developers don't seem to feel the day has really begun until they've tossed off half a dozen crappy new gems.<p>Nice talking point I guess but I wouldn't read much into these. And personally I am happy to see the fast rate of change and evolution. I would like to see it accelerate even faster. In particular I am hoping to see a mass migration towards a more distributed, federated project hosting paradigm; hopefully the next step after everyone is comfortable with git and the other DSCM systems, which will render this kind of "trends" article even harder to write :D