World: r3wp

I made this group to talk about Orca.

a friend of mine is asking whether it will compile under Ultrix

any Ultrix fans? :-)

The chances are good, because it is still simple and is fairly easy 
to compile on Windows, Linux and Syllable

The procedure for compilation is not entirely obvious, though. You 
may want to reference the specifications for Syllable's build system:

http://cvs.sourceforge.net/viewcvs.py/syllable/syllable/system/apps/utils/Builder/packages/orca-current/

Especially the recipe:

http://cvs.sourceforge.net/viewcvs.py/syllable/syllable/system/apps/utils/Builder/packages/orca-current/orca-current.recipe?rev=1.5&view=auto

I use this to build Orca on both Syllable and Linux. If your friend 
has Ruby on Ultrix, he might even try to run Builder and let it compile 
Orca. Builder hasn't been tested yet beyond Syllable and Linux, but 
it is very portable

on linux i build it with this: http://polly.rebol.it/test/test/orca/build.r

The m2_template may need adaption.

There's a patch for the generated M2 template in that Builder definition, 
but it's only needed for Syllable. It works with Linux, but isn't 
needed there

It also compiles on *BSD and OSX

Is there a test suite of scripts that you run to confirm Rebol and 
orca produce the same final results (both logic, numeric, and visual)?

Yes. Of course. Look under 'test' directory.

Orca's author does not aim for full compatibility with rebol.

No it doesn't because there are some extensions and some minor changes 
desired. Extensions include math for 3D, gui thru Qt, and others.

Does any one cares for support of Ops on tuples and decimals?

Who is Orca author? 8)

ie. 

 do [ 1.2.3 + 5.0] ;; note the later number is a decimal! not a tuple.

Karl Robilard primarily, but I am doing some contributions.

I downloaded the windows binary and brought up a console only.

Are there more extensive instructions?

I checked it out.

Did not compile it, but just looked around to see what had been done. 
(I wish the code were better written, but I guess that's the open 
source theme.)

It looks a long way off. Easy to make something that looks a bit 
like REBOL. Hard to make something that is REBOL.

This seems to be a response to a perception that there are some problems 
with Rebol that can not wait for RT to fix in RT's timeframe.

Certainly, I understand such concerns.

is there any way that the community can "vote" on what priorities 
it considers important ?

I would very much like to see that happen.

I know it's cool to work on rebcode etc.. but for those developing 
basic applications, there are some show stoppers that just bring 
things to a halt.

What for instance?

PS: I'd really like to get more help with REBOL.  Problem is, out 
of 100 users, there are normally only about 1 or 2 that will help 
out.

and that #$!%!! detect face bug is a real pain. Gab raised its priority 
to critical, but I'm really prevented from making much progress until 
it's fixed *and* in the SDK. 
 /endquote

private conversation

carl, maybe people need to see a task list? one where they could 
easily say "hey, I can do that, I'm skilled in this area"

A way for visible way for developers to influence RT's currrent focus 
would be really good.

When I hear things coming to a "halt" due to REBOL bugs, I look at 
things like AltME and QTask that are running on really old version 
of REBOL that had a lot more bugs... and they seem to work pretty 
well.

Altme is buggy.

It is?

its crashed twice today with recycle bug for me.

Yep, that's the good old one.

AltMe does crash once in a while but it actually crashes less frequently 
than any other IM I use and it provides a whole lot more in functionality.

I only see it once a month or so.

Yes, everyone seems to ignore all the bugs in other programs, like 
Win32 itself. But,... not to get onto that track.

Back to the idea of voting or influencing.

There are three "kinds" of projects for us: R, D, and B.

R is research. Rebcode is an example. We do those to push a bit, 
because we know they require a lot of thought, plus user testing 
and feedback.

D is development. The normal day-to-day working on REBOL.

B is bug fixing. That's a special mode.