[REBOL] Re: Rebol VS Browser
From: greggirwin:mindspring at: 20-Feb-2003 23:35
Hi Ben,
BD> What I'm looking for in a development environment is a separation of
BD> GUI, data access, and business logic layers where the GUI is executed on
BD> the client, and the others are ran on the server.
OK, REBOL is all about messaging; the exchange of information between
people and computers. It also has great net support built in. Strangely, we
don't see it being exploited in that area - but I think we will in
time. In any case, REBOL is great for this kind of thing BUT, you'll
be rolling your own right now. People like Maarten Koopmans and DocKimbel have
built tools - Rugby (request broker) and UniServe (multi-protocol server
framework), respectively - to facilitate this kind of development, but
REBOL itself just provides a foundation for you to build on.
Here's something else to consider. REBOL is really targeted at
programming in the small right now - you can do a lot with a little.
That said, dialects provide enormous potential for how you format and
interpret the data you are exchanging between components.
BD> ...if Rebol is comparable or if Rebol is more of a scripting tool like Perl,
BD> Python etc.
It's a lightweight, high-level language. You can certainly use it for
scripting, but it's much more than just a scripting tool.
BD> So the question from me : is Rebol currently or moving in the direction
BD> of these type of application platforms?
IOS is the direction RT is taking REBOL (for their part). Lots of
people are working on projects out in the ether, some of which lean in
that direction.
BD> Internet Based - Changes and updates to code done on server, and not
BD> needed on client
REBOL apps are not "server based". You can do CGI stuff, and you could
certainly build a system that dynamically serves up REBOL, but that's
not how it works by default. REBOL code and data is easy to send from
place to place and with its code/data duality view of the world,
pretty much anything is possible.
BD> Nice GUI - a better user experience , HTML is pathetic
Yes. Nice GUI. OS agnostic, some controls/widgets/styles are a bit
weak and/or underdocumented but the GUI dialect (VID) is built in
REBOL, so you can tweak it or roll your own (are you detecting a theme
here :). VID is set for improvement (menus, trees, resizing, and focus
issues are things being talked about) but it's very capable as is.
Check out FTPGadget and Safeworlds to see some commercial REBOL apps.
BD> Database Layer / Resource pooling on the Server - connection management
BD> (pooling), drivers only needed on server, scalability, something like
BD> Java application servers take care of (Websphere, Weblogic etc.)
BD> Business Logic on Server - server handles all logic, connections using
BD> SOAP, Web Services, native libraries
Nothing like that built into REBOL. Rubgy makes it easy to serve up remote
functionality. Depending on what you're building, IOS might be
something to look into as well - solution wise.
BD> Platform Independent
Yes. Core runs on *lots* of things, View (the GUI) runs on about 10
platforms I think.
BD> An important thing to me as being able to develop applications using the
BD> platform without spending thousands of dollars. I like the Oracle
BD> model, can basically download any app and develop with it, but a license
BD> is required to put it into a production environment.
You can use the free versions of Core and View to get started.
Commercial versions run from about $100 for View to $500 for Command.
IOS is more, but it's a lot more than just the language too.
HTH!
-- Gregg
