[REBOL] Re: Curl
From: petr:krenzelok:trz:cz at: 16-Mar-2001 7:48
David Vydra wrote:
> Christian,
>
> Thanks for informing us about Curl. After spending an
> hour looking at it, I am sure that:
> 1. I like REBOL better in most cases
> 2. I am worried about REBOL's future
>
> Why $52M? For the marketing department, of course.
>
> We have all seen many great technologies shelved due
> to competitors better marketing.
>
> My personal complaints for REBOL are:
> 1. R/View is not marketed as a GUI component for
> large client/server systems, specifically servers
> written in Java.
OK - as for Rebol strategy (and I hope Dan reads it to correct me if I
am wrong :-):
1) If I understand it correctly - Express is the priority - it's very
good product imo for small-to-middle businesses
2) Carl once said Rebol is complementary technology to web ones ...., so
I think we need -
a) /shell and /library /at least for non-commercial purposes) ASAP to
become part of /Core, /View (or it's replacement /Link lite), to allow
community in general spread the word about Rebol and its coolness!
b) develop and market /Apache module - few reviews would help. The
scenario could possibly be:
- if /shell and /library are present in /Core, basic /Apache could
be free
- I am not sure when/if rebol plans on module support, as Jeff once
expressed it could help /Apache performance (technical reasons)
- /Apache based upon /Command - proper SQL support, with paid
technical assistance from RT.
The solution for RT is to have dynamic components and per-component
pricing. RT expressed themselves its the way they want to go, it just
needs time to get there ....
c) RT released beta of browser plug-in. It just knows how to launch
Rebol, once .r file is invoked via URL, or website contains some
specific code IIRC, but it lacks one very serious feature, which WILL
imo have direct impact on acceptance of such plug-in - it can't draw
inside browser's window. Maybe I am wrong but I regard it pretty
essential issue. PPL regard everything what's displayed in their browser
being standard.
3) Rebol for Java? The discussion was here already :-) Well, we all know
Rebol is way cooler than Java. We all know Java takes some 10MB. But ppl
don't care of it's size, once they get it with OS/browser install. Rebol
for Java or Rebol for Tao Elate could higher general language acceptance
...
4) in some earlier Rebol days, there was some metnion of Rebol Command
Toolkit - Rebol in form of libraries. I am not sure if it is technically
possible, but if developers could invoke rebol scripts directly from C
or Java code, while there would be some kind of API to allow work with
some of Rebol datatypes directly (using /library we have to copy all
data here and there, no chance to tell library to do something with
rebol block directly e.g.) ... but here I just guess what could be
possible ....
> <reflecting>
> Several years ago, I joined Forte Software, which had
> "technically" the best solution for 3-tier
> client/server systems. When Sun announced their Java
> EJB spec, Forte stock plummeted from $40 to $3.
> Ironically, Sun bought the company for $20/share a few
> years later, but the original Forte TOOL language
> seems to be dying off.
>
> Forte was very proprietory -- not a single book on the
> TOOL language has been published, so REBOL is doing
> better in that department.
>
> For all of the evils of Java, one has to admit that
> there are many useful toolkits available, a few very
> nice IDEs and Java does run on more platforms than
> REBOL.
> </reflecting>
>
Your reflection is good example that sometimes we need more tactics than
what product/technology excelence itself means ....
> I hope 2 years from now I will program in REBOL, not
> Curl.
>
We all hope so ;-)
Cheers,
-pekr-
