[REBOL] Re: Rebol vs SARS / Great Program Theory
From: chris::langreiter::com at: 3-May-2003 17:35
> The other problem is how to identify major nodes...
And of course convincing those nodes of the virtues of REBOL ;-)
I think that writing great programs is still the best way to convince
people of the value of a development "environment". And writing great
programs in REBOL is STILL severely hampered by a few, little (?),
often-talked-about-before - but most critical - annoyances:
- /View performance for anything else than vaguely form-based
applications is not exactly thrilling. Flash is MUCH better for
rich media content.
- Environment blend-in (Priority 1: Windows, Priority 2: MacOS
X, Priority 3: Gnome/KDE/X) is hard to achieve (much harder than
with REALbasic for example).
That is:
- Use of environment facilities (widgets, dialogs, click protocols etc.)
- Availability of rich widgets (like an RTF-level text editor, standard
in NeXTSTEP since, what, 1987?)
- ...
- Unicode is a must in today's networked word, like this funky signage
or not.
- Ease of Shell- and C-level extension (must buy /Pro, where is
Core/Pro for Unices? Do I have to buy Command for calling out to
grep? SDK? Callbacks?)
PLUS there is a severe lack of perceivable strategy. Is IOS developed
further? Is anyone still working full-time on REBOL, the language?
Etc.
As said before, nothing new, but (most unfortunately) still true ...
As long as those shortcomings aren't rectified in one form or another,
I find it hard to convince _any_ node, be it major or not, of the
viability of this great language (and yes, I think that open-sourcing
REBOL would help more than not, although it certainly would require a lot
of effort to come from the most diverse parties of interest).
-- Chris
