[REBOL] [ANNOUNCE] i o n . p e
From: rebol::techscribe::com at: 26-Aug-2003 16:12
Hi.
Here it is - The first (and only) REBOL inteGREATed programmer's editor.
i o n . p e
You can download an eval copy here http:/www.techscribe.com
Download - Try - Like - Register.
REBOL list members register at http://www.techscribe.com/listmembers/
for discounted price.
What it is? Imagine an editor (with misc. features) that has a resizable
and collapsable pane in which you can directly interact with the
REBOL/Core interpreter. Or, select some REBOL code in your editor and
select "Do It!" from the editor's popup menu, to submit the selection
directly to REBOL. Again, see the results
in the Command Shell pane. Ot submit a whole file for evaluation to
REBOL and monitor what it does, without ever leaving your editor.
That's one half of i o n . p e
The other half: use REBOL code to control the layout of the editor, to
open files in the editor, or IONIZE your files. (Explained briefly below
in "long version' and in full in the help file).
The long version:
Goals
There are four goals that I am pursuing with the release and the
continuing development of i o n . p e:
1. To give you, the REBOL developer, a powerful, inteGREATed editor
interface to the REBOL shell, so that you can seamlessly interact with
the REBOL/Core interpreter from within the editor. You no longer have to
save a file, switch to REBOL, do the file, then switch back to your
editor, in order to test the latest changes to your script, look up a
word in the REBOL help system, or test out how or whether or not a
particular function works as expected. With i o n . p e you can do all
that and more without ever leaving the editor. Simply select the
function in the editor, select "Do It!" from the right-mouse-button
popup menu and then evaluate the function with different test values
right from within the editor, using the Command Shell in the top pane.
(Note that REBOL must be launched using i o n . p e in order for the
Command Shell to be displayed. Please read the enclosed helpfile for
different options of how to do that.)
2. To give you a new context in which you can utilize your REBOL
expertise. Up to now REBOL has been mainly used for Web development,
CGI, and other Internet related projects. Now i o n . p e lets you
utilize the full power of REBOL for text processing. The marriage of
REBOL with an editor is very powerful, and a small number of REBOL words
together with some REBOL specific editor functions makes for a very
powerful combination. Besides being able to control some aspects of i o
n . p e 's layout using REBOL scripts, i o n . p e also provides
several interactive features that enable you to control the data that is
made available to REBOL scripts.
3. To help ionize your files. i o n . p e introduces a new type of
REBOL files, namely .ion files, that are treated in a special way and
allow you to control the editor from within a REBOL script. Using the
ion.onLoad and ion.onSave handler functions, you can write REBOL
functions that are called before a file is loaded by
i o n . p e or immediately before a file is saved. You can utilize
these functions to, for instance, easily provide ftp support for i o n
. p e using REBOL's built-in ftp support, email, and automate many
other features (see the helpfile for an example application).
4. To expose REBOL to new programmers and use the "backdoor" approach to
conquer the corporate scripting and programming community. Every
programmer uses some editor, many programmers are very particular about
which editor they use, and quite a number of programmers are curious
about new editors that support unique features. i o n . p e adds a new
and universally applicable reason for programmers to be curious about
and explore REBOL. Even though the current first release of i o n . p e
is already feature rich and very useful, I have a number of
must-have-features on my wish list that will be added over the next few
months. I expect that Release 1.2 will have incorporated all those
outstanding features that will make i o n . p e the programmer's
editor of choice, even for those programmers, who are not (yet) REBOL
programmers.
Download - Try - Like - Register.
You can download an eval copy here http:/www.techscribe.com
REBOL list members register at http://www.techscribe.com/listmembers/
for discounted price.
Enjoy.
;- Elan
