Mailing List Archive: 49091 messages
  • Home
  • Script library
  • AltME Archive
  • Mailing list
  • Articles Index
  • Site search
 

[ALLY] Re(2) REBOL 2.5 Released - WinCE REBOL_HOME suggestion

 [1/5] from: arolls::bigpond::net::au at: 29-Mar-2001 14:44


Hi Mike, I don't have a pocket-sized computer, but I have Win2000. I found HOME set to /d/anton/dev/rebol/view/ in HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Rebol/View Perhaps it is similar in your case. Anton.

 [2/5] from: holger:rebol at: 3-Apr-2001 8:09


On Tue, Apr 03, 2001 at 01:55:26PM +0000, Mike Riley wrote:
> Since Pocket PC > offers no form of command line, I was questioning how (if at all) REBOL
<<quoted lines omitted: 3>>
> supporting the platform other than to say "we compiled our base C code for > the platform and it runs".
We released REBOL/Core 2.2 for WinCE, but could not support WinCE for Core 2.3 because of the many internal changes in 2.3 and insufficient time for testing. Because of that our WinCE port fell a little behind for a while. For Core 2.5 we committed to supporting WinCE again (for more platforms than 2.2 even), and spent a lot of time on the new WinCE port. Our old 2.2 WinCE version of REBOL/Core was effectively merged with the the new 2.5 Win32 version, with the result that our new 2.5 WinCE version inherited a lot of OS-specific improvements from our Win32 version, such as much better networking support and enhancements in file i/o, previously only available in Win32. So, yes, we do support it and do a lot more than just compile our code on it. We have several WinCE devices available and run our normal tests on them, just like on all other platforms. There are still some remaining WinCE issues that we did not have time to fully address in 2.5 though, and which hopefully should be solved in the next version. The best way to handle installation is one of them. This is difficult to do considering that WinCE apparently supports neither environment variables nor current directories . There are also some "look and feel" issues that we would like to see get improved. Unfortunately the large variety of very different WinCE devices and WinCE versions along with incorrect WinCE developer documentation, bugs in WinCE and buggy WinCE development systems have made it difficult so far to get REBOL to work as smoothly on all WinCE devices as it works on other platforms. REBOL works quite well on our Jornadas, but some users with different devices have reported problems. To answer your original question: REBOL/Core for WinCE currently assumes that the home directory is the WinCE "application directory" of REBOL. In theory this should be the directory where REBOL is installed, but from tests and feedback it seems that not all versions of WinCE support this correctly. Sometimes WinCE reports this directory to be the root directory instead. We do not know why yet. Our apologies for the delay in responding to your question. We are swamped with work, in between the Core 2.5 release, the Express release and the upcoming View and View/Pro release. -- Holger Kruse [holger--rebol--com]

 [3/5] from: doug::vos::eds::com at: 3-Apr-2001 10:43

[ALLY] Re: Re(2) REBOL 2.5 Released - WinCE REBOL_HOME sugges tion


Did you try sending you request into [feedback--rebol--com] I have always found them to be responsive....

 [4/5] from: mike_riley_:hot:mail at: 3-Apr-2001 13:55

[ALLY] Re: Re(2) REBOL 2.5 Released - WinCE REBOL_HOME suggestion


Sorry for the delay in replying, Anton. REBOL View creates registry keys during its installation on a Win32 environment. REBOL Core does not create any registry keys upon install. And unfortunately, even if REBOL View did create keys, all other platforms require the REBOL_HOME environment variable to be set via some form of shell command line parameter. Since Pocket PC offers no form of command line, I was questioning how (if at all) REBOL Technologies was able to implement this setting on this platform. Based on the lack of response from any REBOL representative (even after emailing Carl directly on the issue), I guess that they have little intention on supporting the platform other than to say "we compiled our base C code for the platform and it runs". Needless to say, the lack of any official response has left a bad impression on me about their customer support commitment. I was hoping to leverage REBOL's ease of use on WinCE but based on this experience, I have little choice but to find an alternative. Thanks anyway for your welcome attempt at helping to solve this problem. Regards, Mike

 [5/5] from: mike_riley_::hotmail at: 4-Apr-2001 4:22


Thanks for the prompt reply, Holger. I do appreciate your efforts, and your response has renewed my faith in the company's support of this platform. With regards to your home directory comment, REBOL running on my iPaq always shows the "home" directory as the root "\" location, regardless of where the rebol.exe file resides. In the meantime, I have placed my REBOL scripts in the root directory and renamed them with single character file names to minimize the amount of pecking, er, typing on the Pocket PC's QWERTY virtual keyboard (it's truly a pain, since a) the virtual keyboard overlay covers up the cursor, making it impossible to verify what you're typing unless you remove the virtual keyboard from view, and b) the need to peck the SHIFT key to enter a % adds yet another keystroke and more room for error). Also, will there be any support for copy/cut/paste in the PPC REBOL window? I discovered the lack of this capability during a failed attempt to copy/paste a statement into editor in a feeble attempt to circumvent the statement typing quandary. I think the PPC platform is a great environment for REBOL, since REBOL's powerful exe is small enough for the platform and nimble enough to execute a substantial amount of code quickly. I have tried both PersonalJava (too bulky and slow) and a port of Perl 5.6 (too kludgy and, by the time useful WWW Perl libraries were added, bulked the distro beyond 2.5M), and have found REBOL to be the best scripting alternative, albeit not yet ideal. If the nagging issues can be resolved, REBOL could potentially become a predominant scripting language on this platform, and that is why I am making such a stew about my customer support experience. I hope that in the future there isn't a need to use DEFCON 1-type language again to pry for a positive response. Of course, if there is an alternate forum to use for these issues (a helpful REBOL'er suggested that I use [feedback--rebol--com] instead), I would be happy to follow that recommendation as well. Please do your best at making REBOL as compelling on the WinCE platform as it is on the Win32, Linux, Solaris, and other "mainstream" OS's. I will be more than willing to offer whatever feedback I can to help you obtain that goal. Regards, Mike Riley

Notes
  • Quoted lines have been omitted from some messages.
    View the message alone to see the lines that have been omitted