[Ping Carl] Re: Need help for justification of using REBOL as devlan

1) Nobody else here knows it. Why should we commit to a language that makes you the critical resource both to initial release and ongoing maintenance of the project? 2) If we use LanguageX, we can buy software components, hire off-the- street temporary resources, ...etc... to speed up the schedule. 3) What's wrong with all of the other development tools we spent all that money on last year? How come you technical guys always think the next editor, language, or O/S is the silver bullet that's going to solve all my problems? 4) Is that a Microsoft product?

1) But I know/like/prefer/love LanguageX! I already know how to build this system in LanguageX! 2) I already have a bunch of components/subroutines/objects written in LanguageX. Can we compile your part of the code and link in all of these other pieces? If not, we'll have to throw them away and rewrite them! We don't need to waste all of that extra time! 3) But LanguageX is faster! 4) Anything you can do, I can do in X, X++, or VisualX, so why do we need anything else?

1) I don't want to install anything else on my PC. All those plug-ins give me the hives. 2) Is it done yet? 3) Which key is the "any key"? CRS - Psy Sel/SPO, COUSSEMENT Christophe, CPN wrote:

I'm not Carl (and I don't play one on the 'net ;-), but I have a very strong feeling about the following question.

I don't think this question HAS an answer, even in principle, for two specific reasons. The minor one is that the concept of "statement" doesn't even exist in REBOL; one only writes expressions that are evaluated. Different people with different thinking/presentation/programming styles will produce expressions with radically different levels of complexity and radically different ratios for work-performed-per-line-of-code (or whatever other meaningless source code attribute may be the current fad where you work). The major one is based on the fact that REBOL fits into the class of extensible languages . It is possible (even desirable) to define new words that are relevant to the task at hand, to define new generic words (e.g., 'map , 'case , 'pif , etc. from previous discussions on this list), and to use all of those words to define still more new words, and so on... The consequence of this approach to programming is that the ratio of work (e.g. machine instructions) to SINGLE WORDS in the source code HAS NO a priori UPPER LIMIT. The more one uses this "pyramid-shaped" approach to programming, the more work each single token in the source code can do. This is a "good-news-bad-news" situation: Good News Bad News ----------------------------------- ----------------------------------- Compact programs can get lots of Bugs in early/lower definitions can work done. be very hard to track down, especially in a multi-programmer team where not The source code can begin to look everyone knows all of the source code. like a language tailored for the application at hand (because it is!) Many languages don't have any such concept, therefore many programmers Once a "critical mass" of code is in have to be trained to understand it place (especially the application- before they can use it well/properly. specific parts) development can move very rapidly (as can maintenance). Adding new members to the effort takes time for them to learn both the base If the underlying words are well- language and the custom extensions. designed, they become an extremely valuable asset for building new If the extensions are poorly designed, (related) applications. they are not only un-re-usable, but they can also make the original system very brittle and fragile. This benefit doesn't really "kick in" unless/until there is a sufficiently mature inventory of new words, and unless/until the task is sufficiently large to justify/utilize this pyramid-shaped approach. This entire little essay has a good-news-bad-news punchline: (bad news first ;-) These are not simple issues, either to work through or to communicate (especially to a non-technical, e.g., management, audience). I only raise them on this list because of my respect and high regard for the knowledge and expertise of the members of this list. However... If you put in the hard work (technical, psychological, presentational, and relational) that will be required to address them, I sincerely believe that it will greatly improve your chances of selling REBOL. At the very least, it can enhance your credibility with the audience, and you may live to fight the good fight another day.

That fact alone suggests to me that they wouldn't be impressed by any arguments relating to cross-platform portability. [Sigh, grumble...] Let me suggest that you take some samples of VB code (from a book or web site if necessary, but samples of actual code from your local environment would be better), and show how the same things could be done (better ;-) in REBOL. Bear in mind the different meanings of "better". Faster, smaller, clearer, more reusable, more robust... you know the list. ... and/or ... Take some things that REBOL does well, and show how much effort/pain it would take to write them in VB. I won't try to compose at the keyboard here, but lots of half-page-or-less examples come to mind: * A script to take all of the *.html, *.css, *.gif, and *.jpg files in a directory (but ONLY those files) and ftp them to another box (e.g. your web server), then send an email telling when the push was done, how many files were sent, and whether any errors occurred. * A script to grab a web page, parse the html for <img...> tags, and copy all the referenced image files to a local directory. * A useful task driven by an XML spec file, which is read and parsed to control the activity (for example, the first task above, where the list of directories and file types per directory is specified in the XML document). ... and so on ... Good luck! -jn- -- ; Joel Neely [joel--neely--fedex--com] 901-263-4460 38017/HKA/9677 REBOL [] foreach [order string] sort/skip reduce [ true "!" false head reverse "rekcah" none "REBOL " prin "Just " "another " ] 2 [prin string] print ""