[REBOL] Re: What language am I looking for?
From: joel:neely:fedex at: 15-May-2001 7:13
Dean Powell wrote:
> Hi, Joel:
>
> You are correct, the mainframe in question (Unisys 2200) does support
> TCP/IP, and it _should_ in fact be able to speak to the Sun box.
>
Unisys! That's a name I haven't heard in a while... I was involved
with the Burroughs users' group back when it was still a company.
Their B1700/1900 family was a striking example of a great idea that
went unappreciated in the marketplace at large. (A 24-bit RISC-like
processor with dynamically-reconfigurable microcode, and a multi-
tasking OS that ran in 32K of memory -- in 1973!)
> Unfortunately, there's a "network configuration problem." The
> networking boys assure me that it's a simple problem to fix...
> In the meantime, I have testing to do and firm deadlines to meet...
>
I understand fully. Reality intrudes. Been there myself.
> As for putting REBOL on the Sun box...good idea, but the
> Powers-That-Be won't give the OK to put it on said server. They
> don't seem to mind it being on the hard drive of my workstation PC.
> They don't even seem to mind that I use it from time to time to
> make my work life easier, but they're visibly uncomfortable with
> letting it go anywhere else in the company, and I'd rather not push
> the issue right now. It boils down to "Corporate Standards",
> I suppose.
>
Standards are good. That's why we have so many of them.
Standards are about consistency and predictability, not about
productivity.
;-)
Hmmm, I think I've heard the like somewhere back in my long career.
Not that I'd EVER suggest anything even faintly subversive, but...
Just as a matter of academic interest, you can put the binary for
REBOL in the bin directory of your own account and prefix all your
scripts with
#!/export/home/myuserid/bin/rebol
to run the interpreter from there. I usually do something similar
when the sysadmin isn't handy to install an upgrade...
> Reading the other posts on this topic, it seems I've taken a
> rather narrow-minded view of REBOL and its potential. I will
> need to re-examine my approach the the language, I guess.
>
Well... no criticism was implied. It's just that the value of
ANY tool for me depends on the intersection of what that tool
does well with what tasks I'm currently working on. Changes in
my task load somehtimes makes significant changes in what tools
are useful/relevant for the tasks at hand.
> In the meantime though, I'll stick to my original proposal
> that REBOL nicely fills in numerous gaps for those of us who
> work in highly networked (read: very decentralised) environments...
That is certainly one of its "sweet spots"!
Good luck with your challenges, both technical and political!
-jn-
