[REBOL] Re: Does the REBOL book clarify REBOL semantics?
From: rebol:techscribe at: 21-Nov-2000 11:13
Hi -sw,
you wrote:
> Accordingly, I'm considering buying "REBOL-The Official Guide".
> However, before doing so I'd like to solicit your opinions
> on the text. Does it clarify some of the parameter passing
> semantics? Does it clarify the notion of a "value"? Does it
> ramble? Please be critical.
As the author of "RTOG" I'm perhaps a little biased ;-). I think that
Chapters 1 and 3 - 6 will give you a good basis for working with REBOL
From 1982 - 1987 my primary programming language was C, and I believe
that these chapters will help you more easily master REBOL language
constructs that may be a little confusing for programmers who are
accustomed to think in terms of C constructs.
Chapters 7 - 9 illustrate the application of the material covered in
Chapters 3 - 6. In these chapters I had the reader in mind who is
learning REBOL as a first programming language. For you these chapters
are probably boring, because as an experienced programmer you will
alread know how to assemeble language constructs into a program. You
should still browse through these chapters because they also introduce
some new material.
Chapter 10 is an exercise in using the find function.
Chapter 11 should be of interest to you, since it discusses REBOL's
built-in debugging tools and explains REBOL's exception system in some
detail.
Chapter 12 (pages 300 - 337) covers string parsing in some depth.
Chapter 22 covers block parsing, which is the basis for implementing
Small Languages
in REBOL (dialects). I think Chapters 11 and 22 will
help you get a quickstart with parsing. (Block parsing was introduced
around the time the book was supposed to go to the printer. That's why
block parsing ended up in the hastily written Chapter 22 ;-).
Chapter 13 contains a rather useful discussion of contexts (and
objects).
Chapter 14 contains "all you need to know" for using REBOL as CGI agent.
It also shows you how to use REBOL to simplify the process of generating
HTML code.
Chapters 16 - 18 assembles relatively useful (and reausable) material
for working with objects.
Chapter 19 will show you how to use high-level Internet protocols, but
as a C programmer you will probably find Chapter 21 more intriguing.
This chapter covers the low-level implementation of the port mechanisms
and should contain just about enough information for you to implement
your own protocols.
Hope this helps.
Elan
