[REBOL] Re: REBOL IOS, many Q's. :)
From: edanaii:cox at: 1-May-2002 18:27
Gregg Irwin wrote:
>Hi Ed,
>
><< The problem for me is that I'm still not sure as to exactly what REBOL
>IOS is. Is it an OS? Is it a suite of applications? Or is it both? I
>assume the answer is both. >>
>
>It is both; it is neither; and it is much much more. Cryptic enough for you?
>;)
>
Ah yes, I begin to understand now. ;)
>Simply put, it is a client side piece, called Link, that connects to the
>server piece (called Serve, just as you would expect). Link appears as a
>window, called the Desktop, that is your main point of navigation. It's very
>much like the View desktop if you've played with that. On the desktop are a
>number of little applications (reblets) along with folders that contain
>files, other reblets, etc. None of this is terribly exciting from its
>description, I know.
>
>What's exciting is the first time you fire up Link and it synchronizes you
>with everything that's published on the server quickly and reliably. Now you
>can publicly Conference, privately Message, submit feedback, browse the
>Expert FAQ list, see Who is on line, see what News has been posted, see if
>anything interesting is happening on the shared Calendar, check out what
>others have published, etc. Hmmm, still not very exciting.
>
>So, not being excited by this so far, you decide to get a second opinion.
>You fly to Paris and unpack your Link client from the single floppy you
>brought with you. You connect and, BOOM, everything is there, just as if you
>were at home.
>
Very nice, and very much what I understand about it. As a tool, it
certainly has potential for our Sales Force, over here.
>I wrote a little utility and published it on IOS. One day, Messenger popped
>up and someone said "Can I add a couple features to it?" I said that was no
>problem, made sure I had published the latest version I had, and a short
>time later, a new version appeared with their changes. Messenger came up
>again and they said "Hmmm, I'm seeing a bug that causes..." I opened the
>code they had published, fixed the bug, and republished it (after testing it
>of course :). If I didn't like the end result, I'd just pull up History for
>the script and republish an eariler version.
>
But this synchronization, I presume applies to more than just REBOL
scripts, as you've pointed out above, it applies to just about any kind
of documents.
><< Also, since I'm responsible for the movement of data to and from our ODS
>(Operation Data Store), I'm curious about REBEL IOS's strengths in this
>department. Which is why I asked the question that I did. >>
>
>IOS is built on REBOL, the language, and REBOL is a "messaging language".
>Eventually, as the clouds are lifted from our eyes, we'll begin to
>understand what that really means to us as developers. In the meantime, it's
>a very net-aware language with ties to a few interop mechanisms and the
>ability to create new ones without much difficulty.
>
But can it, for example, perform actions that occur to a file, either
remotely, or on the local machine?
Let's say, for example, that I have a process that needs to be aware of
the arrival of a file. Rather than creating a daemon that constantly
runs and watches for it, can IOS fire off a process the moment the file
arrives? In other words, is it aware of the activities that it performs
and can that awareness be passed on to scripts?
>I hope I don't sound too evangelistic. I just love working with this
>language.
>
Nah... You clearly like the product, that's not a bad thing. :)
A few more questions, for anyone that can answer them.
You mention that IOS has two components, a client (called LINK) and a
server (called SERVE). What can you tell me about Serve? Is it a binary
that sits on a host OS? Is it be the sole OS on the box? Or both?
Scripts, I've noticed, are extremely small and efficient. How is it
CPU-wise? Since it handles encription and compression on the fly, how
CPU intensive is it? Since it is distributed, can it share the load with
other CPU's?
--
Sincerely, |
Ed Dana | This is the worst kind of discrimination! The
Software Developer | kind against me!
1Ghz Athlon Amiga | -- Bender, Futurama.
