[REBOL] Dialects (any plan is better than no plan) - Bane or Blessing?
From: tim:johnsons-web at: 27-Sep-2002 11:42
Hello All:
* Gregg Irwin <[greggirwin--mindspring--com]> [020927 08:27]:
> Hi Brett,
>
> <<...I didn't quite understand what you meant by "In a good dialect, there
> shouldn't be any *extra* vocabulary or syntax. Just the dialect." >>
>
> What I meant was that a dialect like VID looks like it just adds extra
> syntax rules to REBOL because of the way we can mix the two. With "hybrid"
> or "mixed" dialects (where you can directly embed content for a different
> dialect, or that are, themselves, modifications of an existing dialect)
> there may be parts of speech that seem superfluous or don't quite match up
> with other parts of the language. Dialects that try to be all things to all
> people will likely turn out this way. Those that define a very specific
> nomenclature, and any that are well designed, should just kind of "hang
> together" in a very natural way.
Many other programmers have told me that rebol looks very promising,
but shy away because of the lack of a standard library or API. And
frankly I think rebol is "old enough" to have that now. It's too bad
that RT (IMHO) hasn't taken (or delegated) the lead in that.
Lacking that, a series of well-documented dialects might help
to fill that gap.
I've been working with Andrews 'ML dialect, and am gradually phasing
out my own 'html object in favor of 'ML. One of my tendencies in the
beginning of using 'ML was to hack Andrew's base code to add features
that I thought I might want. I revised that approach in favor of
not messing with his code. I would think that if Andrew found any of
my "needs" or "to-dos" of merit, he would then incorporate them.
To make a long story short, if we can't get it together to have a
standard library, it appears the energy is really focused in the 'dialect
area, so let's go for it.
BTW: I wrote an introductory review of 'ML in the September issue of
Frozen North Linux Webzine http://www.frozen-north-linuxonline.com/
and am preparing another review for October. Hey Andrew! stick around
for the weekend, I'm going to have questions for you ... :-)
--
Tim Johnson <[tim--johnsons-web--com]>
http://www.alaska-internet-solutions.com
http://www.johnsons-web.com
