[REBOL] Re: Is Rebol OO?
From: gerardcote:sympatico:ca at: 12-Jan-2004 14:14
Hi Joel,
Joel wrote:
========
...
> Answering this modified question would require addressing some
> of the following issues:
>
> 1) REBOL is a dynamically-typed language. This is familiar
> territory if you are used to Smalltalk, Python, or Perl;
> It may take some adjustment if you are used to Java, C++,
> Eiffel, Delphi, etc. Type errors (attempting to apply an
> innappropriate operation on a value, trying to access a
> non-existent component of an object, etc.) are caught at
> run time, not prevented at compile time.
>
> 2) An object in REBOL is a namespace. The values associated
> with the words defined in an object represent the state of
> the object, and functions defined (at creation time) within
> the object use those words in the familiar way:
>
> sample: make object! [
> some-data: "Hello, world!"
> some-method: func [] [print some-data]
> ]
>
...
I know I repeat again myself but ...
Your example and explanation about the way REBOL manages its
own OBJECTS and how someone can use them to create something
useful (even that simple) comes hand in hand with the way I think the
DOC can be enhanced by many other small code examples.
This is generally well done by the ML members like you and any other
advanced REBOLER when required - and there will always be some
need in this area - but I really think there is some place in the official DOC
to put at least some minimal examples that could help beginners to first read
by themselves if they can find and understand what the look for before having
to always restate their questions here.
Understand me well - I am not trying to prevent anybody to ask any question
here since I do this myself as often as I feel I need it. The problem to doing it
like it now relates more with the dependancy we create towards this ML from
the point of view of a true beginner that has some difficulty at finding real
simple functioning and well explained examples before trying himself at coding.
I am currently collecting many of these snippets that the ML answered during the
last 2 years ans I try to classify them around keywords.
When I will consider my effort to be mature enough for submission and review
I'll let you know. In this sense if anybody here did the same kind of work and
would share his ideas with others, I would be glad to share some ideas with this
or these people. If I remember well Jason and Graham already put online some
information of this nature that could be used by any newcomer to REBOL and
myself I will reuse some of their material with their permission.
Fell free to contribute and send me everything you already have that could help
me further in this direction. May be someone even did classify his own code examples
according to some criteria that could be used by others and could be submitted to
me too for discussion.
I currently see 2 general categories to start with :
(but some may be added later if needed)
1- In the current "How-to-do" sense a) for very small Core or View features
(similar to the cookbook but for even
simpler features - traps, gotchas and
limitations also included and somehow
explained)
b) day-to-day small to do tasks
(currently adding to the actual cookbook
that does very well for now)
2- In the current "Concepts" explained a) for delivering internal REBOL secrets
(like documenting the system object,
the many facets and default values
offered by all the View- VID styles,
the eval-exec cycle, context, binding
and objects workings, ... but also
in the sense of and advanced how to
a bit like what the REBOL ZINE
did sometime ago - i.e. extending the
way objects are used to include more
classical OO features, showing how to
design a simple dialect and implement it
using parse or other more traditional
techniques for comparison purpose, ...)
Don't forget this is only my wish list ...
Everybody welcomed to contribute and many of you already contributed a lot in the past
What is missing is an index - a bit like the menu appearing on main page Jabber IM web
site.
I visited it this afternoon and found it to offer some easy to dispatch themes when looked
even for the first time.
Why seems ours (REBOL) so dispersed to me ?
Am I so lost in my own head or is it simply something that we can help become more useful
with a minimal reorganization ? ...
Regards,
Gerard
