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[REBOL] Re: Rebol Unity ??

From: jason:cunliffe:verizon at: 21-Mar-2002 12:16

Jason:
> ... For now, let Flash handle the media rendering and smooth > > interactivity, let REBOL connect them together and explore the important > new > > architectural issues of net life beyond the browser.
Cyphre:
> I think we should heavy support /View and not depending on Flash. View > engine has far more better base technology and it is in some aspects > comparable and even better with Flash.(Please, take in mind that /View > graphics is version 1.1 and flash at version 6). I know Flash have > antialiasing, rotation, better and free sound but this and more could be > relatively easily implemented also in View. It is up to us, testers, > developers, rebol users, customers to show RT the problems/possibilities so > they will be more concentrate on all that improvements.
I agree with that but fear its not enough .. My argument is that REBOL's real strength lies in opening up new architectures and uses quickly. This is the wide open frontier now, where a few clever people and good ideas can succeed. Focus on what REBOL can do really well right now ==> rapid network mesasging. Rugby and Vanilla seem to me the shining jewels. [And of course many aspects of /View and what I've heard about IOS] I am not trying to corrupt Rebol or weaken it. I really respect everyone here and RT for developing something different and wonderful. I want everyone to succeed. There are true intellectual pleasures in learning Rebol, but it is also intended to be useful in the world. And that means working with existing protocols and formats. Nobody complains that Rebol is used with PNG or JPEG, nntp or http... So why not equally apply the same pragmatism to SWF ? SWF is going to be so widespread and people are going to want/neeed these apps to talk to each other in nwe and interseting ways. Gee we need a cool lightweight cross platform messaging language to do that. Then we can scale from PDAs to settop boxes to phone kiosks to vending machines to web servers and desktops.Wonder what we can use? I am sure there is much more /View can and hopefully will do.. and soon. But it takes heavy time and resources to do all that. Plus useful *documtentation* which is not RT best point so far. And books and articles ...Plus community growth and learning curve time. Having a great technology alone is not enough as we know. Like DNA it needs an environemnt, time, context and resources to grow. Rebol community is great, but so small and that makes it very fragile/vulnerable. Pricing, licensing and standalone executable options are all unresolved and confusing topics still. Any system of messaging which uses /View graphics should also think about embracing Flash along with it. Why? It opens the market significantly and demonstrates the virtues of Rebol, including IOS. Taking your scenario, if I show RT a cool network application which uses /View but also some slick Flash integration, they are might react like this: a: "No thanks we don't want to depend in any way or develop anything which works with Flash - goodbye" [goes off to develop new miracle/view or stick head in sand] a: "Yes Nice thank you well done good idea" b: "Yes Very nice but hmm.. hey you know we really ought to improve /View to Flash's level or better". Meanwhile MM with Flash seem to be making in-roads towards Rebol domain much faster than the other way around. Flash already has an uncomplicated .exe capability [Mac adn Windows], and MM have finally grokked to the idea of using Flash heavily beyond the browser. All their products are now geared towards supporting some kind of Flash networking with streaming, multiuser. They are quite sensibly improving the circle of client and server side interactive scripting and message passing using Flash. FlashMX [version 6 out now] is the shift, next version next summer will be the better fruit. This next 12 months is very critical imo for REBOL. And it has a great opportunity right now if it exploits and opens up it potential uses to the Flash market [but not depending upon it]. MEANWHILE, if RT and others can really deliver on /View improvements they have 1 year to get it together. Imagine for a moment if someone told you Flash .exe file could now bundle REBOL in it. Interested ?? Cyphre
> as Carl said: "Yes, REBOL could be a competitor to Flash... I would like to > see that happen." > on my /View enhancments suggestions: "Carl: Yes... we've got many of the > same ideas for what to do. In fact, things like Streaming are pretty high > on our list... and much of it has been done, just not released."
Great news indeed. I would love to see it! Let's hope they find the resources, time and money to test document and deliver. It would be nice if they were even participating in this discussion. ./Jason