[REBOL] Re: Bioinformatics and commercial software products
From: jason:cunliffe:verizon at: 17-Sep-2002 19:46
> I have not found any references to major bioinformatics systems written in
> Rebol. Can Rebol handle the data volumes we require, 10+ GBs? There is no
> biorebol.org, like there is a biojava.org, a bioperl.org, a biopython.org, a
> bioruby.org, etc. Why not? Ruby is a newer than Rebol yet it already has
> bioruby.org. I have not found any references to enterprise software
> products written in Rebol. Why not? Can anyone point me to some?
Hi Jim
It sounds like a terrific project..
To my knowledge no BioRebol yet.
Java, Perl, Python, Ruby all have substantial roots in academia, and thus
natural flow for science departments Python in particular benefited from early
adopters at NASA, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories and few other
places.. A tiny of people liked what they saw, ran some tests, and then
implemented bold policy which included development of very significant
math/science and inter-operability modules. Java, Perl and Python all benefited
from dotcom boom. Became standards, huge on-line communities, sites, books,
reputation and growing population of students and professional to draw on for
labor force. A rich open symbiosis of computer science culture and application
domains has blossomed
Ruby came late and has its largest following in Japanese Universities I believe.
There are many comparisons to Python, on whose tails it rides..
http://www.thinkware.se/cgi-bin/thinki.cgi/RubyVsPython
Rebol IS truly different. It is innovative, elegant, effective and unique. And
waiting to be discovered and applied in major new application domain. Yours is
perhaps just such a one. But Rebol still has a tiny community, is little known
and runs under a much discussed proprietary license. That tends to slow its
adoption, especially in academic/science dept. circles where openSource is
center stage, perhaps more for reasons of perception than reality. But even tiny
price tags can become bureaucratic obstacles.
For a commercial product like you describe, this may also give you some strong
leading advantages. On top of the implicit internet features, Rebol's external
library and shell capabilities give you access to a great richness of other
toolkits. REBOL's elegant 'port' model, derived from the revolutionary AmigaOS,
should also be a great help to you. Likewise simplicity of installation,
especially on Windows.
You ask about large data volumes.. 10Gb+
Can you clarify how those volumes need to be accessed and moved?
I read a very interesting article in BioIT World magazine recently, said that
key issue now for Life Science software developers is they need the skills of
qualified scientists more than programmers. So any platform which reduces the
learning and prototyping curve/time is preferable. Rebol fits that.
Database connectivity and XML handling are presumably two areas you need to
consider. I recommend you contact REBOL Technologies directly, perhaps visit
them to discuss your needs in person. They are brilliant and take the long view
seriously, so an ambitious development like yours merits that experience and
fresh thinking.
I hope REBOL meets your needs. Else I suggest Python.
Good Luck
./Jason
______________________________________________
Jason Cunliffe [NOMADICS: Director art+design]
Tel/fax: +1 718 422-1078 [jasonic--nomadics--org]
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