[REBOL] Re: Is Rebol OO?
From: jason:cunliffe:verizon at: 11-Jan-2004 14:33
> Sorry if this is a stupid question, but is REBOL
> Object Oriented?
No not in the familiar sense..
Rebol does have objects, and can be used for object-oriented programming in
a broad way, but it won't much look like anything you know. Quite different
from Javascript, Python or Java etc.
Rebol has very unique programming paradigm. It includes very good ideas from
FORTH, LOGO, and LISP and is closer to them than anything else. It is great
fun to program in Rebol and does good things to one head -- a tool for
thinking as well as getting things done.
I use Python, Javascript, and Actionscript a lot. and working with Rebol
gives me a fresh perspective on those languages and how to approach
problems.
Other people here are far better qualified than me. They can perhaps give
you a good technical explanation about Rebol and its object-oriented-ness.
It is well known that Rebol's brilliant author, Carl Sassenrath, in a
previous lifetime was passionately involved in object-oriented programming.
Rebol is an experimental synthesis of Carl's language design ideas and
philosophy. Crucially it represents his reaction to object-oriented
programming. Rebol is an alternative paradigm.
As I understand it, Rebol was created to provide an experimental base for
developing language ideas inspired by natural human speech and writing. So
the idea of 'Dialects' and how to implement those was very influential on
Rebol's features. A key tool for creating dialects in Rebol is the 'parse'
function. There is much more to using it than meets the eye. And I believe
not yet enough examples or use of dialects for most people to understand yet
the long-term implication of the idea or how well this works in reality.
hth
-Jason
