[REBOL] Re: rebol 3 => 64 Bit problems
From: tim-johnsons:web at: 12-Feb-2009 8:02
On Thursday 12 February 2009, Henrik Mikael Kristensen wrote:
> The issue has been well known to RT for years: Linux is the hardest OS
> to support due to its very non-standardized nature. There are constant
> kernel and library changes. But RT usually asks regularly what people
> use the most, and then compile versions of REBOL to that Linux
> variant. The question was in fact asked again a few days ago, when the
> R3 version was going to be built. The answer was Ubuntu and an Ubuntu
> version was built.
We've never had such problems with python or perl. We have never had to
build perl or python on our machines. Although I have built newlisp.
Thusly, I believe you are overstating the variance among linx distros.
It has been a long time since I programmed in C and had to compile, but
I believe a strategy for more flexible loading or static linking exists.
Furthermore rebol 2 should be compiled for 64-bit. The year I started
coding for compensation - 1989 - was the year of the Ashton-Tate
dBase fiasco. And I was programming in dBaseIII+ and dBaseIV.
I quote from the Wikipedia entry:
"a focus on future products without addressing the needs of the current
customers."
There's a cautionary tale there.
I am glad that you are building for ubuntu. You should take great effort
to ensure that rebol is in the repositories and that it includes a nice
application of some sort. I would like to test such a build.
If you are part of the development team did you see my email of
Saturday 07 February 2009, subject "Re: Inside R3's developement..."?
I am very concerned that no one replied to my problem there.
Rebol has served me, my company and my customers very well for
9 years. It is a pleasure to work with and at least 50% more productive
than python or perl in small, single-programmer projects. Even tho'
I use it as the critical part of my productivity and production tools,
I've stop doing any development for customers until a mature rebol
with 64-bit compatibility is available.
A 64-bit rebol 2 should have been built long ago. If but a few server
farms start converting to 64-bit and rebol binaries become inoperable,
there will be such a stink that rebol3 will never overcome.
I hate to be the contrarian here, but what I say needs to be said.
And this is all I have to say on the subject.
However, I hope this issue stays on the front of everyone's minds,
including windows users.
Regards
Tim
