[REBOL] Multimedia REBOL... yes or no?
From: Carl:rebol at: 10-Jul-2003 10:32
Pekr wrote (in the "Frank's Looper Crash Answer" thread):
>I am curious to know your opinion, because I think if it would be all
>that easy to do games in rebol, there would be plenty of them. Rebol is
>the nicest engine for whatever - even game development imo, but it
>reaches some technical limits (speed, not full keyboard support, other
>functionality as 3D, better sound etc.)
Some history: when I wrote the "grandfather" of REBOL in 1990, it was
for multimedia. Those of you who own old CDTV demo CDs actually have a
copy of a very old REBOL run-time environment that did graphics, motion
video, sync'd sound, etc. In fact, at one of the very first CDROM MM
conferences, we blew Intel out of the water (using a 7MHz CDTV!)
In the mid '90s, the granddaddy REBOL evolved for use in cable TV boxes
(VideoStream, Inc.) and controlled JPEG encoders and decoders, again
with sync'd sound. In fact, back in 1995, we had some of the best
interactive TV demos on the planet. Even the folks at Warner Music in
NY, who were building their own system, asked "how'd you do that?"
But, then, along came shockwave and flash. I knew a lot about the
Macromedia MM products (I had studied every MM system around by
that point :), and I decided not to try and compete with them. There did
not seem to be "room" for more than one, and that fact may still be true
today.
A few months ago, Cyphre convinced me that we should give it a shot.
Being that MM is near to my heart, I agreed. But then unfortunately
Cyphre was hired to go work on other things (and I know that these days,
good jobs are worth keeping).
I've seen Cyphre's 3D demo (based on Cal's prior), and it's cool.
But, if you want to know the big "blocking point" when it comes to MM
and 3D in REBOL, here is the question you need to answer for me:
Can it be made machine independent?
There are two possible answers:
YES: great! Let's do it.
NO: then, should we still do it for just a couple platforms, and say
sorry
to the rest?
I would like to see MM and 3D in REBOL. But, is it time for a split
from one of the main themes of REBOL? Will the result help or hurt
REBOL?
Tell me your thoughts.
-Carl
