REBOL-SIMPLE dialect
From: greg::schofield::iinet::net::au at: 10-Aug-2008 21:46
People like me are a pest and I know it.
I am nowhere near being a REBOLer, but I am extremely impressed by what little I do know.
I have come up from REXX, I script occassionally and only when I need something done,
it can be anywhere between 6 months to a year or two between projects. Relearning a language
is a major problem, hence the simplicity of REXX is a great asset for that language as
well as its natural limit.
I can see REBOL doing both and doing it well, mostly because of the power of dialecting.
REBOL is full-on, especially with the datatypes, and I admit I just can't really get
some pretty simple stuff, for instance I still can't really get my head around blocks
(how stupid does that make me!).
My suggestion is REBOL-SIMPLE as a very simple dialect of REBOL resembling REXX and heavily
Function based, but using as many characteristics of true REBOL to make transition from
it, to the real stuff, as seamless as possible.
A data-type-less language where as far as the user is concerned every variable is a string
(using the functions themselves to sort things out). I would also suggest versions of
stem-variables as a simple way to manipulate related data. There are a few things I can
suggest, but the idea is just make it simple (ie every "do" has an "end", every "if"
etc.,. simople and clear often means verbose scripts).
To most of you this will sound like nonsense and just a useless suggestion by a tangental
supporter. In the end I will cope with REBOL, I have no doubt of that. However, REBOL
needs to recruit users who are not scriptors or programmers in any form, it will become
popular if it supplies simple tools to do simple things that easily leads to using REBOL
in more complex ways.
From what I can work out a new dialect, well designed, could do the trick.
Greg Schofield, Perth Australia