[REBOL] Re: understanding rebol
From: gerardcote:sympatico:ca at: 6-Jan-2004 0:56
Hi Max,
> Yes I would like to see this and the ref doc tool rescuscitated.
>
> the ref-doc.r is my single most usefull rebol self-help tool. It is out of date, but
man its usefull. it would be fun to merge
both ideas by creating a base viewer and using m-d-p files as catalogues which can be
loaded/edited.
I was asking for what was the ref-doc.r script but was unable to find any reference about
it. Searching for more info I found a
rebdoc.r script in the library. After launching it from the REBOL 1.2.8 console I got
the following :
REBOL Word Summary for 1.2.8.3.1
6-Jan-2004/0:06:08-5:00
288 words
Why do you say that it is a bit outdated since REBOL can regenerate a new words list
each time it is launched.
Let me know if we talk about the same script.
By the way I still think that what is missing the most is an example list accompanying
all these REBOL words as used in and by a
current programmer to solve most of its simpler tasks (and later in an advanced section
the not so simple ones too).
The Cookbook is already going in this direction for some View and VID advanced features
not really described formally elsewhere (or
simply documented and illustrated with very simple and isolated tasks). The same is also
partly achieved with current REBOL books
but the online doc is missing these simple examples.
Personally for me as a newcomer the best examples would be based on small real tasks
and algorithms - in a similar way my old
programming books did before for other languages. I will soon try my best at adapting
some Lisp like code based upon the Dr. Scheme
environment and tutorials and see if I can put it at work here in the easy-VID environment.
May be the help from some Logo examples
will be useful too but I don't want to reinvent the wheel again since there is probably
much work that has been done formally here
by someone that doesn't take anything for granted (I don't want to name anybody in particular
but I love the way Joel Neely, Carl
Read, Gregg and many others always get to the right solution by following a proven analytical
process when some problem arises on
the ML.)
May be some ppl would like to contribute "lightly" and share some of their small code
snippets used for testing the many REBOL words
they learned in the past - I alas suppose they kept these and they can take some time
to feed us with them or at least they can
invent some others on the fly to help others when request is done as is generally the
case here on the ML.
It seems to me this must be done now to let advanced ppl get more free time in the future
for harder tasks - even if it is probably
a pleasure for them to continue helping newbies if I relate by the popularity of the
questions answered here on the ML. At least if
the newbies can fly a bit more by themselves they will cease to blame the bad quality
of the online information available about
REBOL.
> I am starting work on STEEL|forge this week. Maybe I could tackle this documentation
issue as a workable prototype to try out
the ideas I have for forge. Instead of a dummy application, I might end-up with something
which actually helps out, on its own too!
> Something that is one script, loads catalogues, saves local appended versions. With
some collaboration from rebol.org, we could
include a submit button where we could all send our usefull tidbits and load them, a
la ref-doc.
I'll let advanced users like you and many others in the community to start in this way.
Regards,
Gerard
