[REBOL] Re: Commercial-quality REBOL programmers needed
From: greggirwin:mindspring at: 16-Aug-2002 13:08
Hi Dick,
<< It is the application that corporate America needs. Do you agree? >>
Yes and no. :) If you look at how RT views "reblets" (little rebol apps
running on the IOS desktop, but could be little rebol apps in any
environment), you'll see that they say "think of them more like web pages,
and less like applications", i.e. they are disposable. So, on that level,
there is great value in things that aren't really "applications". OTOH,
REBOL is really great for building true applications with full GUIs, data
persistence, etc.
<< And in defining a killer framework, Rebol wins big time, because the
framework allows for many kinds of applications to be developed. >>
Frameworks and templates are definitely valuable. I have little template
projects I tinker with for very simple database apps where you have, say, a
list for selecting the item you want, the fields to fill, and commands to
Add, Remove, and Update items. I want to avoid reinventing the wheel but, at
the same time, I don't want to burden simple projects with a complex
framework that provides 10,000% more than I need. I like little pieces, tied
together to make bigger pieces. Even when using VB, while others would write
monolithic systems that compiled to 6 or 8 meg, I wrote lots of 100-200K
apps that worked together to make a system. That makes it easier to build
different systems from different parts.
<< So, I guess the question is are we trying to figure out a killer
application which will propel Rebol into the forefront because of the
application or just trying to enhance Rebol the language? >>
I think the killer apps will find their way. IOS is a good example.
Enhancing the REBOL langugage is different from most other languages, too,
in that creating dialects allows you to enhance the language in an
application/tool/domain-specific way. It blurs the lines, which is great for
me because I don't have to switch mental "modes" nearly as much as I would
otherwise.
Most times I don't realize it until after the fact, when doing
read-throughs, maintenance, etc. I'll read some code and think "Oh yeah! I'm
generating that VID stuff dynamically." or "That's right, that's getting
loaded from a file and parsed."
I don't have enough time under my belt to say that I know the best way to do
things. Heck, there isn't always a "best" way with REBOL because you can do
things so *many* ways.
REBOL is a great language for thinker-tinkerers (thinkerers) IMO.
Sorry for rambling so much!
--Gregg