[REBOL] The Industry Needs REBOL But Thinks it Wants Perl Re:
From: ryanc:iesco-dms at: 20-Sep-2000 11:22
Terrance,
It is unfortunate your "boss" is so stand off-ish. I have found if you give a
manager plenty of things to do, they leave you alone. When you work alone, you
get more control over what you do.
I discovered this several years ago, I was in a tough situation where my manager
thought she needed to micro analyze everything I did. So I made a list of URGENT
things my manager NEEDED to get done for me to make my department more
PRODUCTIVE. Every time she came by my desk I rattled off about 3 things from my
list. Soon after, she just avoided me, allowing me to go about my work as I
always had--my way.
To hide the source, or not to hide the source. That is the question. Whether it
is nobler in the mind...
If I was president of REBOL I wouldn't consider releasing my source for quite a
few more years. The fear is that software giant X will analyze your source, build
their own version, and of course with their super mega marketing department, lay
waste to your efforts. Once REBOL is established, the marketing law "First in
mind" comes to play, REBOL could go open source much more safely. I also might
consider going open source if the company was in a desperate position for
popularity.
>From an investment standpoint, now we are talking about the green stuff that gives
us REBOL, going open source could be bad, mainly because, as far as I know, its
long term effects at best are unpredictable from a financial standpoint. What
about Red Hat and other Linux companies? They of course have a much better
argument for future profitability--taking on the biggest. Whose market is REBOL
taking on? A small part of Borlands and Java--something I expect has not even
been profitable.
When it comes to becoming profitable, as usaul I am sure REBOL's got something "up
their sleeve." Just keep in mind that convincing investors is entirely different
than convincing programmers.
As far as paying bills goes, I have found that smaller businesses don't really
know or care what programming language you use. You cant find these guys with a
net search, you actually have to knock on doors or use that telephone thing. Many
of them need reports made, so to open maybe just ask them if they have any reports
that they spend more than a day on. Often you do one little project and they
reallize what a computer can REALLY do and invite you back for more. I find these
type of jobs the most fun and fulfilling.
Good luck,
--Ryan
[princepawn--MailAndNews--com] wrote:
> As I'm sure you all know, if you type rebol as a keyword into any jobsearch
> engine you will find no jobs anywhere. The situation with Perl is quite the
> opposite. Here at work, I had just finished up a slick REBOL script to do
> encrypted ftp file transfers that was 1/4th the size of the legacy Perl
> script. My boss was somewhat willing to accept a new language based on my
> description of it as easy to maintain, simple, yet powerful. But in the end,
> he said drop the REBOL version based on asking some of his friends about REBOL
> - and none had heard of it and none were sure that REBOL.com would not be just
> another washed up dot-com in another year or so.
>
> So, what I have been working on is a Perl implementation of the REBOL
> interpreter so that I can say "I am using the REBOL Perl module" and not tell
> them I am using a different language.
>
> In addition, the hidden-source methodology of RT pisses me off. I still cant
> run REBOL on my Debian/Linux machine and probably would've been able to had I
> been able to compile it myself. A perl implementation would run anywhere Perl
> would. And then I could get rid the console-oriented nature of REBOL when I
> felt like it.
>
> So what do you think? My guess is that there is far too much uninformed
> interest in doing things in Perl and that my Perl inmplementation of
> REBOL/Core is the only way to hide the wolf of REBOL in the sheep's clothing
> of Perl.
>
> To close, I also am not sure I will ever be able to command the type of pay I
> am commanding to do Perl programming and my stack of bills is something REBOL
> has not figured out how to reduce.
>
> terrence-brannon: [[princepawn--yahoo--com] perl-refugee myth-gamer]
> free-email: http://www.MailAndNews.com
> free-usenet: http://www.mailAndNews.com
> ; all the above is real REBOL code, believe it or not.
--
Ryan Cole
Programmer Analyst
www.iesco-dms.com
707-468-5400
We are what we think. All that we are arises
with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make
the world. --Buddha
