[REBOL] Re: language shoot-out :-)
From: edanaii:cox at: 3-Nov-2002 21:42
Is this new, or did I not notice it when I looked at the web-site this
morning?
======================================================================
Hi, the shootout is an unfinished project. I've decided to
discontinue updates to it for now while I work on some other
things. Thanks for everyone's help.
======================================================================
Which means that such a competition would not do REBOL much good.
So maybe I could still make my idea a go.
Let me pitch it, and see what everybody thinks.
First, a little background.
Presently, I'm learning Java and REBOL both. For entirely different
reasons. Professional survival, where Java is concerned, professional
curiosity for REBOL.
Previously, I had written a Basic routine I call RandomCopy. It was a
little utility that I used in the past to randomly pick my sig, or my
answering machine message. Fairly simple, it picked a file from a
directory and copied it to the target file/directory.
Recently, I rewrote it in Java. It took me a while to figure out. But
after much weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, I got it to work.
More recently, I wrote a REBOL version. I wrote it in about 1/4 the time
it took me to write the Java version. While not as readable as the Java
version, it was definitely more simple, elegant and in the final
analysis, easier to understand.
That's what started my thinking. While I have not quite decided about
REBOL yet, I'm pleased with it enough to think it deserves a chance.
Since this guy says he no longer supports the site (for the moment),
here's my pitch.
I wanted to work on a web-site that had to levels.
The first level would be a "how to" site. It would give programmers,
like myself, examples in how to accomplish things in a given programming
language. These examples would be simple, utilitarian tasks that could
be used, ultimately, in actual work.
The second level would be a forum, in which members could compare,
critique and vote on the best solutions. They could compare Java, REBOL
and any other language and rate its overall performance, tallying up the
winners.
Competitions would start by specifying an algorithm (in simple easy to
understand english, no nerd-speak). Programmers could then build
solutions to meet the challenge and then would be graded on how close
they could come to the actual algorithm, how easy the solution was to
understand, which was smaller in size, which was quicker in performance.
Now, like I said, I like REBOL, but I intended this site to be
objective. All solutions submitted to be judged equally and fairly. The
intention was to let any product prove itself on its own merits.
So, any thoughts?
Carl at REBOL wrote:
>This is quite an interesting comparison... we should coordinate on the submission for
REBOL. Has anyone started working on it?
>
>-Carl
>
>At 11/3/02 05:38 PM -0800, you wrote:
>
>>An idea: May want to use REBOL/Base for some of those benchmarks in the time and memory
usage.
>>
>>At 11/3/02 12:24 PM -0700, you wrote:
>>
>>
>>>Awe, man!
>>>
>>>They stole my idea! :)
>>>
>>>I was actually playing with the idea of making such a site. Glad someone else did,
now I can concentrate on my other one. :)
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
--
Sincerely, | We're Human Beings, with the blood of a million
Ed Dana | savage years on our hands! But we can stop it! We
Software Developer | can admit we're killers, but we're not going to
1Ghz Athlon Amiga | kill today. That's all it takes! Knowing that we're
| not going to kill... Today! -- Star Trek.
