[REBOL] Re: Shelll access
From: moliad:aei:ca at: 30-Jun-2004 13:30
Hi Kay,
if you download the latest BETA releases, the 'CALL word is opened.
This is the SINGLE MOST PROMISING potential feature of v1.3
Thousands of people have tried rebol, liked it and then laughed at its inability
to call system commands without paying (a not so trivial amount)... really this
is a shortcomming in ANY language. especially if your main goal is to be a
messaging language... you need to find out the context of the exterior world,
simple things like the user name, can not be based on the value of a file, which
can be any file on a computer. A serious application must be able to ask the
computer about stuff before starting to work, and this is NOT possible with
rebol.
imagine, I've had to use batch files, python which calls commands and gives the
values as arguments to rebol, and many other bloat-like solutions (like using
set-browser) to encapsulate the usage of system commands to rebol.
In the end, you always find a solution, but its cludgy, feels overly complicated
for such a simple thing and in the end it only aggravates the programmer,
because calling system commands is such a basic function of any "glue" language
or one which must identify its operating context (like domain name or machine
name, user name, etc)... hell some even created C apps which xfer system calls
through a tcp port...
If RT had opened the shell access the moment it was available, he might have won
a few thousand more users... which is a lot.
again, try out a beta and you will be able to use CALL :-)
lets hope it stays that Way...
-MAx
PS: I own a pro license so I have nothing to gain by letting CALL be opened, a
part from having more rebol friends... :-)
----- Original Message -----
From: "Trevor Gosbell" <[gosbell--myrealbox--com]>
To: <[rebolist--rebol--com]>
Sent: Wednesday, June 30, 2004 12:00 AM
Subject: [REBOL] Re: Shelll access
> Hello Kai,
>
> Will Arp's shell function in post of 16 October last year might provide an
answer for you: http://www.rebol.net/list/list-msgs/31804.html I've had pretty
good success with this under both Linux and OS X.
> Shlik also has a section "Launch native applications from REBOL"
http://www.shlik.org/links.html#exe but I haven't tried any of these methods.
> I know that it was supposed to preserve portability but the inability to
directly call external programs from /Core is one of the (few) disappointments
in REBOL.
