[ALLY] Re: Ok, so we can't yet have REBOL on a Palm; notenough memory...
[1/2] from: kracik:mbox:dkm:cz at: 27-Oct-2000 11:32
Hi Chaz,
I don't think that consoles are good at doing same things as computers.
They are now designed so that you can just turn it on, put the CD or
cartridge in and play. The internet-ready consoles have Internet
connection and TCP/IP stack for playing online games, but no
applications like web browsers or email programs.
Perhaps the Amiga consoles and Dreamcast are an exception that they
are actually normal computers packed as a console. But, AFAIK,
Playstation, Nintendo 64, Playstation 2 and X-Box are designed only
for games and it would be difficult to write normal applications for
them. I know there are visions of home computer, set-top box and game
console merged together, but I think current console companies have no
interest in it.
As for expanding a console to a "full" computer, you could expand
Amiga CD32 with additional modules, you got hard disk, mouse,
keyboard, parallel and serial ports and video output to a monitor
instead of TV. IIRC people did this when there was a shortage of
Amiga 1200s.
Is there a huge market for REBOL in consoles? I can imagine
REBOL/View with sound and full motion video capabilities as a great
development tool for console games and multimedia encyclopedias and
such. And game developers could use REBOL dialects to script their
games, instead of inventing UnrealScript or using C and a virtual
machine like Quake 3. But these uses are not specific to consoles,
they would be also useful for computers.
Regards,
--
Michal Kracik
chaz wrote:
[2/2] from: chaz::innocent::com at: 28-Oct-2000 2:03
Thank you for your well-considered response.
At 11:32 AM 10/27/00 +0000, you wrote:
>Hi Chaz,
>
>I don't think that consoles are good at doing same things as computers.
>They are now designed so that you can just turn it on, put the CD or
>cartridge in and play. The internet-ready consoles have Internet
>connection and TCP/IP stack for playing online games, but no
>applications like web browsers or email programs.
Playstation 2 original specification including internet connection, this
could still become a reality. And since Microsoft has tied its destiny to
the Internet, one could expect XBox to have internet connectivity
Not a problem, with REBOL on the console, one could access the World Wide
REB, send email (pop://), read newsgroups (nntp://), get the accurate time
(daytime://), etc
>Perhaps the Amiga consoles and Dreamcast are an exception that they
>are actually normal computers packed as a console. But, AFAIK,
>Playstation, Nintendo 64, Playstation 2 and X-Box are designed only
>for games and it would be difficult to write normal applications for
>them.
Currently, consoles are used exclusively for games. But looked at from
another perspective, they are low-cost platforms designed with powerful
multimedia capabilities. The most glaring difference are the input devices
- gamepads rather than keyboards or mice.
One should definitely do not expect that an application created for the
console would be like a word processor or a spreadsheet. Word processors
are an evolution of the typewriter. Spreadsheets are an evolution of the
columnar pad.
One would hope that REBOL on a console would allow people to invent the
future, to empower them to create applications that will be obvious once
they are created, but at them moment we cannot imagine.
I know there are visions of home computer, set-top box and game
>console merged together, but I think current console companies have no
>interest in it.
If we travelled back in time 30 years and tried to describe to some naive
person the computers we use right now, they might think we were describing
some kind of merging of a "television" and a "typewriter" and a
calculator
and wonder what possible appeal such a chimera could possibly
have.
But that's beside the point. I only wish to entertain the possibility of
REBOL on the currently planned next generation of consoles.
>As for expanding a console to a "full" computer, you could expand
>Amiga CD32 with additional modules, you got hard disk, mouse,
>keyboard, parallel and serial ports and video output to a monitor
>instead of TV. IIRC people did this when there was a shortage of
>Amiga 1200s.
The Amiga is a wonderful platform. When Windows 95 came out, some of the
benefits proclaimed were "true multitasking", "built-in multimedia
support", "long filenames", etc. You know, stuff that Amiga users have had
for years.
>Is there a huge market for REBOL in consoles? I can imagine
>REBOL/View with sound and full motion video capabilities as a great
<<quoted lines omitted: 3>>
>machine like Quake 3. But these uses are not specific to consoles,
>they would be also useful for computers.
Perhaps we are not so far, I think. The historian Marshall McLuhan said
The medium is the message
. As long as REBOL is used on computers, REBOL
will be used to do the sorts of things that people have come to expect from
computers. Mostly flat static screens. We use it the way we use other
computer things. 1) We write or modify a script in an editor then 2) We run
it. Repeat.
If REBOL is used on a radically different kind of platform, then we will be
in a new frontier. The language itself is dynamic - its all fluid data.
REBOL is very well suited to take on the character of the console. Expect
dynamic interfaces that immerse you into their operation. Perhaps in the
future we will program in REBOL using a heads-up display, the code flying
past us, errors emitting a distinct sounds, and using our trained reflexes
to modify functions as they pass in front of our targeting cross-hairs...
chaz
Notes
- Quoted lines have been omitted from some messages.
View the message alone to see the lines that have been omitted