[REBOL] Re: evaluation result (or... goodbye)
From: pwoodward:cncdsl at: 3-May-2002 14:32
Wow -
actually a pretty good evaluation of various technologies and the reasons to
adopt them (or not) at an organizational level. While I personally enjoy
REBOL, using it daily for a variety of tasks, and to test out programming
theories, it's hard for me to recommend it to a large organization.
Although in my current position, there is a good chance that we may develop
a 2.0 version of our product using IOS in spite of the barriers, because we
believe that the benefits REBOL can bring to the table may outweigh it's
hurdles.
Currently I've been doing a lot of programming in Java. My last 7 years of
programming for hire have spanned 68000 assembly, C, C++, FoxPro, Access,
Java, Visual Basic, SQL, PL-SQL, Perl, ASP (VBScript & JScript), Lotus
Script, PHP, Lite, Python, and REBOL. I've used REBOL since it was
available for download, and have also used Java since it's beta (although I
took a break until Swing got settled in). Every language has a place, some
are just really good at doing certain things. Also I'm a stong believer in
not re-inventing the wheel where possible.
Java is good. There's a reason it's been widely adopted. I don't think
REBOL is going to slay Java, nor was it set out to do so. Java and Rebol
can co-exist, along with C, C++, and dozens if not hundreds of other
languages.
When I have to explain things to my friends who are non-programmers, I
usually use something along the following:
With earlier languages like C, you have to really work hard to solve the
problem at hand. You have to be concerned with not just your problem (say,
how to calculate payroll) but with problems imposed on you by the underlying
computer hardware - memory allocation, etc. In the "old days" you had to be
really smart, and keep track of a lot of things in order to write software.
With newer languages like Java, you don't have to be as concerned with the
underlying details. You can largely focus on the problems at hand, instead
of writing a memory manager, or other "implementation detail". In essence,
Java and languages like VB are lowering the barrier to entry. Making it
possible for mere mortals to program usefully.
Sure, this isn't always a good thing, but, using Java or REBOL really makes
me appreciate the underlying work that has gone into them so that I don't
have to think about irritating details (until I find a bug).
- Porter
