[REBOL] Re: General REBOL questions
From: jason:cunliffe:verizon at: 16-Jun-2002 4:13
Hi Brian
Well Carl and Andrew answered your Qs 1,2,and 3.. but that leaves the hard one:
> 4) I did a search on Dice.com and didn't find 1 job for REBOL.
> Hopefully their new licensing terms I read about in the archives of
> this mailing list will change that. More Java-like licensing where
> REBOL still controls the design but developers are allowed to use it
> freely for commercial purposes. REBOL would then make their money
> licensing REBOL and associated applications to larger corporations for
> commercial purposes.
Firstly, I find REBOL is curiously 'hidden' from many web searches. For example
there are many REBOL scripts which are published as rebsites, accessible through
/View Desktop which don't appear at all via Google. This is a shame, and a
nuisance too.
Someone wrote a REBOL 'search' script a while back in response to this. But I
still regard it as design deficiency in /View's Desktop that it does not have
smarter listing, searching and sorting features for rebsites and their contents.
Technically it would not be hard, but the UI design and initiative from RT has
recently been oriented to building up REBOL/IOS and the company's small, but
brilliant technical resources have all been focused on the same task.
Which means that REBOL is still off the normal web 'radar' in many ways. That
includes JOB listings. REBOL has a tiny programmer community still, with almost
no other public presence, [but it did make to the Webbies], so it is unlikely
that you will see job listings showing up in the obvious places soon.
But if you look at problem solving, ie. the tasks those jobs are needed for,
REBOL's features come shining forth. Not enough people know about REBOL yet. But
when they learn about it, they often immediately want to use it. Project and
application requirements.
Just this week I presented a preliminary web site design to a company. It was
all about core graphic design and interface ideas, and use of FlashMX. During
the meeting I happened to show Flash menu tree loading and opening XML files
served on another Vanilla site I am building. The client was soon interested in
Vanilla. I showed some REBOL scripts for it I had written. They were immediately
impressed by the simplicity and elegance of vanilla's design, and then by the
tiny size and power of REBOL.
Could we use this for small content management site for another client of
ours...? [I smiled.]
REBOL is a formidable and unique tool in any programmer's kit. Depending on the
situation it can be your best secret weapon or best new chance to innovate. Many
companies want only high profile technologies. Ones they can go to the books
store for and fund shelves full of it. They want the freedom to hire any number
of programmers trained in it. People are very often afraid of new tools, or ones
which may seem to make them too dependent on an individual developer. Python and
PHP were both in this Catch-22 position until a couple of years ago. Now they
have turned the corner fully into public respectability. They have reached a
plateau and are entering their golden years.
REBOL is brilliant and already incredibly useful, but still very young. In these
times developers will not be very likely to be asked/hired specifically to use
it. Instead they will be the ones introducing it because it is the best tool for
the job. Probably also the fastest and most fun to use.
I hope it too gains the wider audience it deserves. Licensing and lack of
certain features hold it back. IMO, it could/should be better promoted and needs
to unlock the CALL library features for non-commercial free use. RT's website
could be much better. More books are needed, especially for /View and IOS.
Anyway, welcome to the list.
./Jason
