[REBOL] Re: REBOL with Java (FREEBELL)
From: petr::krenzelok::trz::cz at: 20-Feb-2001 21:42
----- Original Message -----
From: <[Robbo1Mark--aol--com]>
To: <[rebol-list--rebol--com]>
Sent: Tuesday, February 20, 2001 8:41 PM
Subject: [REBOL] Re: REBOL with Java (FREEBELL)
> JEFF,
>
> How come is FREEBEL the JAVA REBOL interpreter really cool,
>
> which it indeed is, but OSCAR gets jumped upon?
>
> Iam confused, are alternative REBOL implementations a good or bad thing?
Definitely a good thing? I think discussion regarding OSCAR showed us
something. One thing is RT wanting to cover many areas of development,
second thing is ppl are free to have their own opinion. I somehow was not
too comfort with Holger's answer, as it seemed to me a little bit offensive.
The truth is - we were promised to get better system than Amiga is. Let me
state that in my opinion Rebol is pretty cool! Using VID, dialects, Rebol's
simplicity makes me really crazy about it, and sometimes I even think I will
loose my sanity :-)
On the other hand we meet some "problems" on several fronts. Speed of Rebol
in some areas of application, speed of overall technology development
itself. But how to solve it? RT has to make some money, or there will be no
Rebol at all. Bitter reality for us all. Maybe I was too much ranting about
Rebol situation just because the current state of things is not exactly what
such cool technology as Rebol surely is deserves.
So does Java Rebol help us? Hmm, having Rebol in Java means you need some
10MB or so Java distribution to run 300kb Rebol? Well, it sounds like
useless product to me. But there is also another point of view. RT released
browser plug-in. My argument was, that no plug-in is gonna be publicly
accepted, unless it is able to draw inside browser's screen area, dot! If
someone would create /View for Java, programming interactive cool forms
could be fun. You can bet that pretty much every important browser out there
supports Java. Well, of course I am not sure if it is technically possible.
What is my opinion on getting Rebol into public faster? If we can't have
real component system to provide us with better per-component pricing
currently, there is still something what can be done to help the situation:
- RT could free /Shell and /Library components (as for /library - at least
for non-commercial purposes initially). It would provide community of users
with features found in another free scripting languages, while allowing ppl
to start much deeper integration of Rebol into their own solutions. It could
be announced, articles posted on several places, and maybe Rebol would gain
much more acceptance by such step than RT dares to admit :-)
- re-release of /Apache, powered by /Library components - for free. RT could
provide us with library wrappers for various databases, as currently showed
by Jeff. Why would ppl buy it? Because saving of the time, becase RT would
provide us technical support? There is also "modules" question. While we can
have context isolated using objects, IIRC there was some talk about faster
/Apache, by using proposed rebol modules support, because interpreter would
not have to boot? Then we should provide rebol based solution to benchmark
sites, to show them, why ppl should start to consider Rebol. We LOST
currently many ppl. I know personally 3 folks who looked at Rebol but stayed
with PHP.Each new Rebol powered server means bunch of scripts, custom and
possibly SHARED solutions and knowledge ... kind of a intelectual property,
but very valuable ....
- Tom, Dan or Carl could outline a little bit some kind of a roadmap to us,
or even to their website, to show ppl there is some long-time strategy ...
Well, I hope my comments are taken just as comments, nothing more ... :-)
Cheers,
-pekr-
