[REBOL] Re: [REBOL]
From: carl:cybercraft at: 10-Jul-2002 21:43
Don't know why the subject-line in my last post had "mime etc.." in
it, but anyway..
On 09-Jul-02, [atruter--hih--com--au] wrote:
>> REBOL does need a certain level of popularity though else there
>> won't be enough
>> people who know how to program it to go around.
> What, not enough RTCE type folks around? ;) Seriously though, the
> difference between a technology that people *want* to learn despite
> lack of commercial use compared to technologies that people are
> *forced* to learn bodes well does it not?
A good point. But RT needs it to be used commercially for it to be a
success for them. That programmers enjoy using it in their spare
time won't make a market out of it.
> Anyway, one of the great strengths of REBOL is that complex problems
> have simple solutions; sure the more REBOL experience you have the
> more elegant that solution will be, but I'd say that given even
> rudimentary REBOL skills at least *a* solution is possible ( could
> the same be said for Java, C#, C++? ).
I'm not so sure. Perhaps for very simple stuff that just requires you
to modify an example from the user guide, but once you go beyond that
you need some general programming skills and the right kind of mind
and resources to get past the error messages or wrong results that
are being returned. I'd say the learning curve is a bit bumpy with
REBOL. Easy to begin with, then bumpy as you try to get your head
around how the various pieces of REBOL fit together, then easy again
after you've got the hang of it and the pieces seem simplier than you
first thought. But you hit the bumpy bits quite soon I found.
> Not trying to start a flame-war here, but the few non-IT folks I've
> spent two or so hours with in REBOL have walked way at least able to
> do something in REBOL on their own, while I doubt I'd get much past
> the IDE of aforesaid languages (let alone headers, conditional
> compilation, etc). Having "users" actually able to modify / code in
> the language of implementation (granted it will be as rare as
> power-user macro writers) means the potential pool of skill should
> be a much higher percentage (eg. if 1% of folks who use C# can
> actually code in it, then I'd expect a larger percentage in the
> REBOL world - even if the absolute number is less).
Could be. There's a problem with understanding REBOL scripts written
by others though, in that they can be full of words defined by the
programmer and that you won't find in the user guide. This can make
other people's scripts difficult to figure out.
--
Carl Read
