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Latest version of RebDB appears to work under R3 with only 2 minor 
changes:

	1) Change the Umlaut u on line 3 to a normal u
	2) Change the 'return on line 214 to 'exit


Once I've had some time to run a few QA tests I'll upload these changes 
as 2.0.4 (along with a few other maintenance fixes).

The other big news is that I've commenced an R3 specific rewrite 
of RebDB focusing more on the Storage Manager (as opposed to the 
Database Manager). Preliminary results, pre-optimization, look very 
promising:

Script: "RebDB server" Version: 2.0.3 Date: 13-Apr-2007
Rows ...... 10,000 * 2
RAM Used .. 1,225 Kb
Insert .... 0:00:05.02291
RAM Used .. 6,497 Kb
Delete1 ... 0:00:42.43421
RAM Used .. 5,346 Kb
Delete2 ... 0:01:13.110128
RAM Used .. 6,100 Kb

Script: "RebDB Storage Manager" Version: 3.0.0 Date: 1-Feb-2010
Rows ...... 10,000 * 2
RAM Used .. 1,029 Kb
Insert .... 0:00:00.689558
RAM Used .. 4,568 Kb
Delete1 ... 0:00:05.103824
RAM Used .. 1,991 Kb
Delete2 ... 0:13:47.026307
RAM Used .. 1,991 Kb


Delete1 is primary key-based (10,000 deletes), whilst Delete2 is 
query-based. Apart from the sluggish query performance, what's noticeable 
is the more efficient use of memory. I've opted for a mixed binary! 
storage design where fixed-width fields are stored in RAM in a single 
binary! with pointers into a disk binary. The idea is that you'll 
generally want fixed width records in memory to query against, with 
variable length records (BLOBs) accessed on disk less frequently 
(e.g. specific text/binary attachments).


All this is then wrapped up into an object so creating a table is 
as easy as:

	test1: db-create [integer! 8 string! 12 string! 15]


with all other commands (db-insert, db-update, db-delete, etc) working 
as under v2. Oh, I've also cut the code size from 1,300 lines to 
less than 400 (75% complete). The final goal is to deliver what RIF 
promised ... a simple storage mechanism that provides the basic building 
blocks required by higher-level database systems (akin to ISAM or 
VSAM files).

All new RebDB v3 released for REBOL3. To take it for a spin, try 
this:

import http://idisk.me.com/dobeash/Public/rebdb.r
help db-
test: db-load http://idisk.me.com/dobeash/Public/test.bin
help test
sql select test


Extensive documentation in the works (within a week) ... actually 
a large part of the doc deals with db design [from my POV] covering 
off on the trade-offs with fixed vs variable length records/fields, 
typed vs untyped columns and RAM vs speed optimization. Needless 
to say, I think I've got the balance about as good as is possible 
with pure REBOL mezz code. This has been a long time in the making 
...

A testament to R3 code?

With cloud tech so big now a cool product for rebol would be some 
kind of server/client DB with built in syncronization methods. I 
do not know if RebDB can be adapted to fit that bill...

this is very cool.. I hope I will be able to study a little what 
you did.. I was lately playing with creating a simple data storage. 
To learn more about things and because sqlite has some bad sides 
, and mysql is not appropriate for my particular usecase.

You can repost in Announce group ...
 Need to finish documentation first.
Is it still pure ram based?
 ... Yes, but with two important differences:


 1) Values are stored in a binary! (reducing RAM overhead by about 
 50%)

 2) Reading/Writing a table to disk is easier/faster (as data is already 
 in binary! ... no conversion required)


Think of RebDB v3 as not so much a "database system", but a module 
that adds a new datatype ... table! ... which can be easily acted 
upon like any other REBOL datatype.

old version contained transaction log

 ... all the higher-level stuff is gone. It's purely a Storage Manager 
 now that enables you to create higher-level DBMS systems.
A testament to R3 code?

 ... Definately. The new 'apply and 'assert words among others make 
 things so much easier.
I do not know if RebDB can be adapted to fit that bill

 ... it can. RebDB provides the building blocks for higher-level abstractions 
 (much like ISAM files were/are the building blocks for DBMS's such 
 as DB2 and MySQL).
I hope I will be able to study a little what you did.

 ... I'd wait for the documentation ... the code is highly optimized 
 and rather terse. Without the conceptual model it's rather hard to 
 grok at first glance.

Running from a script I get this error:

** Script error: sql does not allow word! for its 'arg1 argument
** Where: catch either either applier do
** Near: catch/quit either var [[do/next data var]] [data]e

Run it again I get this:

** Access error: cannot open: %test/rebdb/test-rebdb.r reason: -3
** Where: read case load applier do
** Near: read source case [
    binary? :content [content]
    string...

Typing "sql select test" in the console works. 

Great stuff as usual Ashley.

Yeah, the 'sql command is just a console wrapper for the underlying 
functions. I got tired of typing "db-select test [] []" ... but scripts 
should definately use the db- functions directly.


If you see some strange query results (wrong row(s) being returned 
or no rows returned at all) ... this is probably due to the binary 
equality bug I posted in !REBOL3. I'm putting some workaround code 
in (== instead of =) but working around < and > is a bit tricky! 
;)

Ashley - so RebDB3 is not full fledget DB anymore? I mean - if there 
is no functionality for rolling a log, what happens if there is a 
power outage for e.g.? Or you write to disk each time, so that RebDB 
is not memory-only DB anymore?

It works like any other REBOL datatype now, except a table! has structure 
and defined methods for data access. It's all in-memory ... the developer/user 
decides when/if they save/load data to/from disk and how often (and 
the disk write/reads are much faster as the data is binary! already).

Ashley, if you operating on binary! as a storage I think it would 
be possible to easily redirect the DB engine  to a file! port opened 
in binary mode no?

Yes. I deliberately designed it so that the index binary (which ideally 
should always be memory resident) is as small as possible and that 
the data binary only requires seek and append operations (which are 
well suited to disk access). I need to do a few more benchmarks, 
but the next release should include a "data on disk" option.

Ashley would you be so nice and write a little bit about indexing 
in RebDB? Do it work automatically  for all columns, or may the indexed 
columns be presetted? what in memory representation do you use (map, 
list, block?). Is indexing done automatically during insertion, or 
is it indexed by search? THX IA

http://www.dobeash.com/RebDB/rebdb3.html#section-4.6gives a brief 
but complete idea of how indexing works. The low-level implementation 
is quite simple:


 - The index is a binary! with each n bytes (n = idx-size, defaulting 
 to 2) representing on offset into the data binary! (start of row).

 - The index is sorted by/with a number of columns (left to right) 
 equal to the number of key columns (minimum of 1).
	- Updates and inserts that break this order set a reindex flag.

 - Lookup and seek both check the reindex flag prior to searching 
 the index binary! using a binary search ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_search_algorithm
 ).

 - Lookup returns a single row (where # key values = # key columns)

 - Seek uses Lookup to return a range of values (where # key values 
 <> # key columns) and then does a linear match on each row


I'll devote a bit more time/space in the documentation to flesh this 
out with examples.

RebDB 3.0.2 uploaded (same access instructions as before).

Documentation updated ... http://www.dobeash.com/RebDB/rebdb3.html


This release renames several db-* functions more in line with REBOL 
naming conventions (e.g. db-insert renamed to db-append as rows are 
in actual fact appended not inserted).


Overall performance improvements (tested against a 1 million row 
table):

	- db-append 1.2x faster
	- db-append/nocheck option 8x faster than db-insert
	- sort-idx 2x faster
	- db-select with REBOL conditions 1.2x faster


It's going to get seriously interesting once ports are working properly 
and I can start benchmarking (and optimizing) disk and URL based 
direct access.

Exactly. RebDB3 is optimized for "left to right" equality checks 
... which in my experience is the majority access pattern. When you 
have more than one key you are actually imposing a grouping heirarchy 
upon the data (e.g. a 3 column key of Country, State/Province/Region 
and City for example).

The index [of offsets] is created by reading a number of columns 
(min 1) equal to key-cols and inserting both the composite row and 
the offset into a block which is then sorted by the composite row. 
For eaxmple:


Say we have 2 columns of integers in the index and also assume we 
have two rows.

Reading:

	3 2 ...
	2 3 ..

might create an intermediate block like:

	#{0034} #{01030102}	; note the #{01} field length indicators}
	#{0056} #{01020103}

which is sorted to produce an index of:

	#{00560034}


Index is updated as rows are inserted or deleted. Some insert and 
update operations will set a reindex flag which is acted upon the 
next time a lookup or seek is performed.


This index is maintained automatically by RebDB ... you cannot "create" 
one in the traditional sense of the word. The weakness of this scheme 
is it assumes that key access is by column 1 OR column 1 & column 
2. It doesn't handle the situation where you need key access to column 
1 OR column 2 (which in my experience is a fairly uncommon case).

Yes. It's fairly easy to access the dat file on disk via a port! 
... as long as some port! bugs are corrected. Once ports are working 
correctly I'll add file support.

Maybe it's late and my eyes are not working properly.
I am starting to use REBOLDB for REBOL2.0.

I have read the quickstart guide and now I know how to create a table 
but.. wait: How do I open the table at the next start of my script 
?
I cannot find a DB-OPEN function.

Also, I need to store DATE and TIME together and select rows greater 
than a DATE and TIME value. Does RebolDB support this ?

Any HELP for my problems ? I am stuck with a simple application.

I'm not a rebDB expert....So take my answers as something to be tested:

-- I don't think there is an explicit OPEN command. Simply access 
the table (with SELECT, INSERT, etc) to open it.  Similarly, no CLOSE 
-- use DB-COMMIT to ensure caches are flushed.

--rebDB supports REBOL datatypes. Have you tried creating a table 
row with a datetime in it? Did you have a problem?

(From Ashley on 5-Feb-10:)

All new RebDB v3 released for REBOL3. To take it for a spin, try 
this:

import http://idisk.me.com/dobeash/Public/rebdb.r


when I try this I get an access error - reason: "not found or not 
valid"


Has RebDB v3 moved to a new location ?  Thanks!  Cannot wait to try 
it out.

I've moved from MobileMe to DropBox since then.

import http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8269768/rebsm.r
help db-
test: db-load http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8269768/test.bin
help test
sql select test


I'm in the process of rebuilding my Dobeash site and will be adding 
this (and a few other goodies) along with documentation when done. 
No ETA, but it can live on dropbox until then.

if exists? login: join system/script/parent/path %login.sql [ client/run 
login ]

this would make more sense to me in SQL.r, so any directory with 
a login.sql could be either a server or client directory

it would also make more sense to call it init.sql and provide a client.sql 
and a server.sql as examples in the distribution

if i do a commit *, then the replay.bak won't exist, but the server 
will still try to execute the session.log, which results in fractional 
changes:

Is there a protocol version of RedDB ? In order to use it under Cheyenne 
with database enhancement.

No, but it wouldn't be that hard to write a protocol wrapper replacement 
for the SQL function.

Point of information.  Due to time constraints; the motion to vote 
on a rebol Of The Year counts as dead on the table, unseconded.

Point of Information:   Gregg posted two nominations.  That goes 
against current roty rules.  One nomination per participant.  But, 
the chair would gladly accept Henrik Kristensen as a nominee, if 
that is acceptable to all.


Motion to include Henrik on the list of candidates.  Declare dissent 
before December 15th.

Point of information.  The roty 2010 vote will be held using

    roty-vote: func [
       Candidate [string!]
       /local ballot-paper
    ][
         random/seed now/precise

         ballot-paper:   rejoin [lowercase candidate "-" random/secure 1e10]
         print ["your vote is:" mold ballot-paper]

         print ["your confirmation code is:" checksum/secure to-binary ballot-paper]
        ]

and sending the results of 

roty-vote "a very hard choice"


in a message on Altme REBOL3, to user btiffin and repeated to Maxim

The hard choice comes from the nominee list of

Robert Muench
Nenad Rakocevic
Nick Antonaccio
Henrik Kristensen
Sunanda
Brian Hawley

Congratulations to all in that respectable list.


Vote results, one per participant, will be accepted until the roll 
over to 2011, Greenwich Mean Time.

as we tabulate votes we will post the confirmation codes here (in 
random order ;-) 


this will allow voters to confirm we've properly added their vote 
to our very sophisticaded vote counting system (a private group which 
will be made public the moment we announce the 2010 roty winner ). 
 


This is to make sure we do not miss your vote due to some possible 
altme bug. (like the first private post of anyone to me doesn't highlight 
their name in my PM list).  I will be logging off/on frequently in 
order for my PMs to be properly synced. 


NB: the voter names are not included in that group, in order to keep 
the votes anonymous.

I voted a couple of days ago. My magic code has not appeared. Do 
I get another go?

my vote is for sale to whomever can get carl to release a new build 
of anything on solaris.

Thanks to all people who voted for me, it's a nice way to celebrate 
my 10th year in the REBOL world. Congrats to Nick who deserves to 
be honored for his great contributions. I'm a bit disappointed that 
Sunanda hasn't win (I voted for him), I guess it will be his turn 
in 2011.

(: Thanks Doc -- but I voted for a winner, so that's just as good 
:)
Enjoy your year of ROTYness!

Motion to open Nominations for the 2011 user.r rebol Of The Year 
awards.


Rules to follow same as 2010.  Code posted 16-Dec-2010 in this group. 
 Votes posted to btiffin and Maxim for verification.


(As a gentle reminder, Bob's Rules requires this motion be seconded 
to become an open item at the table)

Thanks for arranging this award for another year, Brian and Max.


I've voted for who I think will be a worthy winner -- and I hope 
everyone else takes the time to do so too.


For those who find AltME scrolling a pain, the voting protocol can 
be browsed here:
   http://www.rebol.org/aga-display-posts.r?post=r3wp558x302

Voting closed a little over six hours ago.

Pleased to announce that the rebol Of The Year 2011 is an honour 
shared between

Kaj de Vos and Nenad Rakocevic.


Congratulations gentlemen, your efforts ease and enrich the lives 
of rebols the world over.

Thanks to all the participants, and to all, a great 2012.

ok let me rephrase...  given choice of:
-water gun fights
-arguing with Carl about extensions
-riding tricked 3 layer bicycle
-arguing with Ammon about RIDE
-igniting things so they glow and burn
-arguing with brian about R3 modules

-chilling on someone else's couch under the sun, offering water, 
while counting topless/wet-shirt females
-arguing with Reichart about anything ;-)
-getting a hot girl to rub suntan on me
-arguing with Gab about liquid
-getting a hot girl to rub suntan on me an hour later  ;-)
-arguing with cyphre about R3 view

-tripping under some bizare / insane / gargantuous / dazzling / puzzling 
/ lit-up / babe infested / about to be burned / open-aired  -  party 
dome

I guess rebol is wayyy at the top   ;-D

but seriously there has to be a devcon this year.. its been soo long.

If you search on my name on this page, you will find the newspaper 
printed at Burning Man.

Of note, Pancake was our chef (most burners don't have chefs, we 
had two, the Pancake sisters).


The dust storm did come, and the area around us was decimated....however, 
the giant camp I designed and built stood strong.


http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:f1Mza1dKO1UJ:bitethe.com/brb/archive/2006_08_31_C_Thursday_Fear.pdf+%22burn+the+geek%22&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us 


This guy made a pitstop in our camp, you can see my construction 
details behind him above the whiteboard (search on Burn the Geek)...

http://marc.merlins.org/perso/bm/2006/


I used reinforced corner plywood bolted to 2x4s.  No one else did 
this, and their designs flew away in the 70km winds...  All my parts 
were reusable.

We had a huge trampoline too , if you build it, beatuiful women will 
come...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/oliviamiao/237414254/in/photostream/

If there won't be any real conf I wote for virtual too.. in fact 
it would be good to have virtual 1 or 2 times a year anyway .. not 
all can come to physical, even if the materialize themselves :)

yes, new zealand would be nice. most beautifull country on earth, 
 

relaxed people and a nice lake for  doing waterski and wakeboarding 
near rotroua., a very positive location for a devcon.

Maui looks just New Zealand...except it is warm every day...  in 
fact I took almost no pictures when I went to NZ because it looked 
like my back yard.  


In the same day on Maui you can see snow, dessert, a dormant volcano, 
one of the most powerful computers in the world, swim with dolphins, 
tutrtles and whales, surf, shower in a waterfall, eat food all day 
picked directly off trees, and sleep under the stars...

The second day you can do even more :)

I saw Avatar here in Maui, many people came out commenting that it 
was like seeing their backyard in a movie...

Aren't there dinosaurs there? I saw that in a movie once. :-)

Buy an island,build a small country on the island, call it the United 
States of Rebol,

How about a "virtual live" Devcon? Everyone can  have a choice of 
 several locations which will both have a physical gathering aspect 
as well as a connected virtual one.  Else Carl can decide and we 
live with it - We're all used to that paradigm aren't we? :-)   That 
being said, Reichart has been suggesting Maui for some time now. 
 Perhaps it's time.

meeting in person makes it a different experience... we meet virtually 
every day... to me its the main point of the devcons.

What about using YouTube for a remote delayed conference ?

as I said, the point IS to meet the people you can't normally meet 
because they are far away.  ;-)


thing is I know not everyone can attend for a variety of reasons... 
which is why its usually held in nice places, so it doubles as a 
vacation.


we could schedule virtual conferences every few months.. but they 
aren't the same as devcons.

well I sure can't go anywhere unless it's in near proximity of our 
country.. Praga would be that luckily :) ..


I also think virtual meetings could happen every once in a while.. 


remote delayed conference .. I never thought of something like that 
but it's actually an interesting concept :) . It would also produce 
video "serries" about rebol

(I mean the option of Praga is a lucky coincidence)

Max - why I agree that live devcon is an absolute preference, I also 
think that some even as once Nick A. (or who organised it?) done, 
could have some possitive effects too. You still have to prepare 
for it, find your free time to join, and I think that we might enjoy 
it ...

Perhaps we need a voting mechanism

And Chris ? did one a while ago

<Perhaps we need a voting mechanism>
Or at least a way of showing preferences.
An AltME checklist could be a starting point.

aha, there is already a frappr map? :) .. the huge banner on the 
top of page it says something about starting to charge.. well I created 
the mapservices which is free.. you can add yourself on it

speaking of prague, Anthony Bourdain had a great episode on it

looks like a great city

The only way that I see DevCon2010 being held is if somebody "steps 
up to the plate" and organises it.


With some help (with web sites and payment collection), I could probably 
organise a DevCon in Kuala Lumpur. It's a long way from America, 
Australia and Europe. In that sense, it would be an equitable location 
- everybody would be jet lagged :-)

if I ever get any better financially I will organise a RebolCamp 
here in slovenia.. the catch, it will be real camping in one nice 
camp in the alpine part of Slo

A bunch of my friends meet in the Nederlands and sort of "camp" for 
a hackers conference.

We use generators!

I'm all for in Janko.

Camping in the wild, great! In a place with crocodiles and lions, 
.. something to keep Reichart busy!! 8-P

I know there are many who want a physical DevCon but it's now March. 
 What say you?

I saw links to all past devcons on qtask today. too bad there are 
no videos available on pages any more. If someone has them and hosting 
is a problem I can putt them on some of my servers.

Qtask does hve some of the DevCon2008 videos available for download; 
though it does not look like a full set.

some ideas regarding a possible STRUCT! dialect is more than welcome. 
  
short rebol code examples welcome!


This will allow me to tailor the engine to how people want to use 
it.

if you can separate them as:
must have:
nice to have:


and provide them in the order which you can test them on their own, 
then I'll have a good feel for what I should try to tackle first 
wrt the /library API.

I want to mention this openly:


The name of this altme group is intentionally meant to look RT official. 
 The end goal is for this extension to become THE standard for mapping 
libraries dynamically to REBOL 3.


I want to work WITH the whole community AND with Carl, so that it 
becomes part of the official "sanctified" R3 toolset. 


It will be an ongoing project and will probably, eventually,  be 
maintained by several people.  So its best to start with a name which 
implies this, if only so that the group doesn't get renamed later.


Please understand that as the extension and host kit capabilities 
are improved and changed, this extension will try to keep up.  Its 
even possible that noteworthy efforts in this project might ultimately 
alter REBOL3 itself, so please feel free to participate, even if 
you aren't intent on testing/using the extension right away!


I resisted in giving this project any special name... its as plain 
and obvious as can be... so it should be obvious that ITS AS MUCH 
YOUR PROJECT THAN MINE.

Maxim for more lasting documentation, please create a wiki page for 
what design decisions are made and for general documentation. Thanks.

Henrik, Good point.  

Will do when a prototype is doing at least "something" .


I will note, though, that if someone wishes to *officially* take 
up this task (especially testers which will have their hands at it), 
I will be more than happy.  My time is sparse, and documentation 
is time consuming.

maxinm, since english is not my native language, documentation

is quite hard for me. but if this project e.g. need a public server
for datasharing or whatever I can provide a virtual host with 
slicehost or linode. just mentioned in case of...

Oldes, I'll admit I never liked the R2 /library API.   its difficult 
to understand and feels more like a permanent work-around than a 
complete solution.


I'd really like to allow access to external libraries with a lot 
less fuss.

One idea I have is to use C-like source strings as the interface 
to describe the functions (so we could import .h files directly, 
when possible).  but that will be for a release down the road.

But first, I'd use a native rebol ANSI C90 source tree format (tokenized, 
pre-processed, un-wound error-free source tree data).   

The /library extension would then only manage declarations (funcs 
and structs, for now), assuming funcs to be external library declarations.

the source tree format could also be used by Cyphre's jit, an LLVM 
extension, Rebcode, or things like that, as a common target.  so 
we can all share efforts.

maxim, from the userside (this is how I can talk about /library) 
the wiki from ladislav sounds very good. containing all solutions

for the current problems (pointers, fixed length arrays, nested structs,
conversions). the pointer conversion is cool too. 


what about taking the current solution and these ideas from ladislav 
as 

a clean base and built later additional higher abstraction layers 
for e.g.
automated C header or calling conversion?

as said, for me as a 'normal user' I would like to shielded from 
lower level

languages like using MASM or C as long as I only intend to use precompiled

external libs which I guess is the most using scenario for /library.

Maxim your feeling around the R2/load library is the feelling we 
all get that's why in R3 so much work have been done to improve it 
and i think it's a real good path.

for example actually being lua ruby or python most of their "regular" 
use  are to be merge as plugin into a host application that shares 
data with them Allowing to set up a base that will not change and 
an extention that will be faster to create ... This point is still 
in my opinion a strutural problem in rebol since in rebol data structure 
are hum ... special  and cool. 


One thing you can't do in rebol and that will miss us alot is for 
example the hability to create a ready made structure  in memory 
and map a file content directly to it. (For example in case of  "memory 
dumped files" in C ...) I could provide a detailled example but i 
think most of you saw what was my point...

Maxim, I'd suggest to look how CTYPES module for Python works. I 
think the have iplemented some interesting ideas which could be a 
good inspiration...http://starship.python.net/crew/theller/ctypes/

replies in order:


@ pekr,   I am well aware that extensions and /library are different. 
 R2 is not such a very easy way... I've cursed so many times trying 
to use it in "real life".

sea would make your life importing a comple API much easier but its 
not required... the source tree format is the basic interface.  which 
you can submit directly, just like in R2.

@ all,   since there is no struct! or run-time generated datatype 
in R3 we basically have to start from scratch... we do now have a 
handle! datatype which is just like a pointer, which can be used 
as a reference to /library allocated RAM.


to help with visualizing my ideas here is an idea of how I see the 
/library import process happening:

maybe it will help relax apprehensions I have created earlier  ;-)



;-------------------------------
; importing libs
;-------------------------------

user32-lib: retrieve-library 'user32 [
	GetDesktopWindow:	:int32 ]
	OpenClipboard:		:int32 [Wnd: int32]
	close-clipboard:		:int32 "CloseClipboard"  ; note: renamed!  
]

my-lib: retrieve-library 'myown.dll [
	do-this:		:char* [my-arg: complex-struct* ] "DoThis"
	get-that:	:super-simple-struct* "GetThat"  
]



;------------------------------
; declaring structs:
;-------------------------------
super-simple-struct: [
	x: int32
	y: int32
]
complex-struct: [
	value: char*  ; a C string
	value2: int32
	int-array: int32 [50]
	buffer-ptr: byte* [4096]
	struct-vals: sub-struct [
		value3: int64
		value4: int32*
	]
	sub-struct: super-simple-struct
	struct-ptr: super-simple-struct*
	struct-array-ptr: super-simple-struct* [50]
]

;---------------------------------
; calling library stubs
;---------------------------------
window: user32-lib/GetDesktopWindow
user32-lib/OpenClipboard window
user32-lib/close-clipboard

;---
; with structures
;---

; on alloc, all members which aren't explicitely set are either set 
to  0, or  point to 0 filled arrays and structs.
my-lib/do-this alloc-struct complex-struct [
	value2: 2995	
]

coordinates: my-lib/get-coords


;-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

that's what I mean by simple  :-)


This is just a plan, an idea... its not a specification nor is it 
set in stone in any way.

people have to realize that R2 has routine! and struct! types.  we 
don't in R3.  so it a clean slate, I can't just improve the R2 system... 
there are fundamental differences in the API which add features, 
but also remove some...  due to this fact.

@ shadwolf, wrt memory dumping of structs... yes... easy.  they will 
be flat memory chunks in RAM, managed with malloc/free  so we could 
easily just dump the bits to a file.

note that the /library extension will NOT trample or play within 
the R3 memory/GC if I can prevent it.  this is to sidestep the MANY 
stability issues (some incurable) which I have had to deal with when 
using R2 struct! types in lib calls.


the fact that the /library lives outside of the core is a very welcome 
improvement IMHO.  it does mean that we will be duplicating/copying 
RAM... but this happens in other languages as the default for any 
series manipulation... 


we'll see how it evolves, but it may be possible to share some memory 
intensive datatypes, like image!, and vector!... That will depend 
on the evolution of the extensions system itself.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
C-Header

---------------------------------------------------------------------
typedef struct
{
 double  *data;
 long     size;
 long     datasize;
 long     firstvalid;
} Array;

typedef struct
{
 Array  dt, op, hi, lo, cl, vol, oi;
 long     size;
 long     datasize;
 long     reccnt;
 char     path[256];
 char     name[16];
 char     description[48];
 char     symbol[16];
 char     cusip[12];
 double   begindate;
 double   enddate;
 long     type;              
 long     frequency;        
 long     datatype;          
 long     optiontype;       
 double   deliverydate;
 double   strikeprice;
} Bars;

---------------------------------------------------------------------

maxim, here e.g. is the problem with my lib.
I can allocate, read and write data to the first Array struct.
One strange thing here is it works only if I pass the pointer
as third array binary! to the lib, the requested double fails.


the array is also part within the bars struct. in this case rebol 
is passing the substructures as pointer which fails too. 
char arrays for name desc.. and cusip fails either.


my 'must have' requirement would be that  /library should able to 
handle
these standard structs without going 7 corners.

so working with pointers is a pain and nested strucs and char-arrays
are not existend...

thanks tom... that is a very nice real-world example I can work with. 
  

Do you understand the quick and dirty examples I gave above?  


 looking at it and without any other explanation, do you think you 
 would be able to map your example struct and would it solve all your 
 current requirements (assuming all the types are supported, of course)?


the one thing I DO NOT plan on supporting right now are unions... 
they just make a simple thing complex for no reasons... and they 
aren't that often used in the field anyways (for that very reason).

with a functional /library interface stuff like this will be
possible in rebol, quite interesting. 
If you like visualisation take a look here:

http://www.panopticon.com/demo_gallery/d_bats_usa_ex_demo.htm

for an overview:

http://www.panopticon.com/demo_gallery/index.php

It occurs to me that if you want to go the LOAD/library way, you 
could have the library spec be a parameter to the /library option. 
It could then return a module that wraps the library, kind-of a mezzanine 
extension.

and to complete it before I promise to stop bothering
with this again, a blocking user interface in 1985
was acceptable but today? (task! please!)

Transforming the C side from R2 to R3 is pretty simple. I have enhanced 
my "in-house" DLL with a R3 interface in a couple of hours. So, now 
it can be used from R2 and R3. Same interface, some functions.

So a good way could be to generate a R3 C based extension wrapper 
around the R2 used function and use the R3 extension interface. It's 
much better and simpler to use.

Robert, we can do that already. This group is discussing a project 
that is taking another approach, though is built on R3 extensions.