Newbie question
[1/4] from: scot:ski2die at: 24-Jan-2002 18:55
Hi Folks,
First, I have to say thanks to Brett Handley for answering a bunch of
wandering questions for me off the list and suggesting that I sign up for it
and ask some of them here. From what I've seen so far, this list is like
many of the developer lists out there- full of people willing to lend their
expertise. Thanks all!
Ok, the questions.
Let's say you have a server with Command installed on it. I understand that
.r files will be interpreted by Command before being spit out to the world.
Q1: If the .r files are have nothing more than text input and output, like
any other CGI script, will they work in any standard browser? Can Netscape
or IE display the dynamic information to a wandering web surfer from say, a
Forum script written in Rebol that doesn't need View to see it in action?
Q2: Is there a way to get Rebol to interpret .r files on my desktop through
a local Rebol server so I don't have to bring View up each time I want to
pull up a .r file? In Miva (a CGI scripting language I use - miva.com) I
can set up a local Miva server and have my .mv files go through it by using
127.0.0.1 as the IP address in the URL line which lets me test everything in
any browser on my system.
Q3: Ok, now let's say you have a server with Command installed and a bunch
of .r files that take advantage of the graphical interface of View as well
as, let's say, some ODBC database stuff. How does the server let the local
machine know that View needs to run this particular .r file? For example,
if a person wanted to put that RebTris.r (demo tetris game) on a website for
visitors to play from the server, how would they be notified that View is
needed, or is that up to me?
Reason I ask is that I'm in a group that is building a large scale
application that needs to be able to execute from the net on personal
computers, and Rebol seems to be the way to go, but my inexperience gets in
the way of being able to understand some of the more technical aspects.
Thanks,
Scot Ranney
[2/4] from: tomc:darkwing:uoregon at: 24-Jan-2002 21:57
On Thu, 24 Jan 2002, Scot wrote:
> Hi Folks,
> First, I have to say thanks to Brett Handley for answering a bunch of
<<quoted lines omitted: 5>>
> Let's say you have a server with Command installed on it. I understand that
> .r files will be interpreted by Command before being spit out to the world.
asuming you are speaking of a web server snt the .r (or .whatever) files
are where they should be (say cgi-bin) ... with the correct permissions
and the scripts are being spit out into the world at beople who have
requested them etc then... yup
> Q1: If the .r files are have nothing more than text input and output, like
> any other CGI script, will they work in any standard browser? Can Netscape
> or IE display the dynamic information to a wandering web surfer from say, a
> Forum script written in Rebol that doesn't need View to see it in action?
yes, web pages are just printed text sent off by the server
> Q2: Is there a way to get Rebol to interpret .r files on my desktop through
> a local Rebol server so I don't have to bring View up each time I want to
> pull up a .r file? In Miva (a CGI scripting language I use - miva.com) I
> can set up a local Miva server and have my .mv files go through it by using
> 127.0.0.1 as the IP address in the URL line which lets me test everything in
> any browser on my system.
you do not say what your local desktop is running on
> Q3: Ok, now let's say you have a server with Command installed and a bunch
> of .r files that take advantage of the graphical interface of View as well
<<quoted lines omitted: 3>>
> visitors to play from the server, how would they be notified that View is
> needed, or is that up to me?
hmmm getting over my head since I do not own command
but as I see it your clients would be running /view and the client's /view
would talk to the servers /command for the ODBC database stuff
the server is not apt to be telling the client anything about what it
should open .r files with as that is a local decision
i.e. on my machine .r files are opened into an editor by default
getting the rebtris to run in the local /view when clicked on in a web
page was not "out of the woods" last I checked... there is a plugin that
can be gotten to work but I do not think it made it out of beta yet
however if your clients were running rebol/link they
could click and play rebtris very realibaly
[3/4] from: al:bri:xtra at: 25-Jan-2002 20:22
Scot wrote:
> Q1: If the .r files are have nothing more than text input and output, like
any other CGI script, will they work in any standard browser? Can Netscape
or IE display the dynamic information to a wandering web surfer from say, a
Forum script written in Rebol that doesn't need View to see it in action?
Yes to all. There's example CGI scripts at http://www.rebol.com. I've got a
collection of them now as well, if you want to see an example of Rebol
script and it's HTML output.
> Q2: Is there a way to get Rebol to interpret .r files on my desktop
through a local Rebol server so I don't have to bring View up each time I
want to pull up a .r file? In Miva (a CGI scripting language I use -
miva.com) I can set up a local Miva server and have my .mv files go through
it by using 127.0.0.1 as the IP address in the URL line which lets me test
everything in any browser on my system.
This sounds a little confused. By using Xitami (free web server) and
localhost (127.0.0.1 IIRC) and a browser, I can get Xitami to interpret a
Rebol script by launching Rebol. It's very fast as well.
> Q3: Ok, now let's say you have a server with Command installed and a bunch
of .r files that take advantage of the graphical interface of View as well
as, let's say, some ODBC database stuff. How does the server let the local
machine know that View needs to run this particular .r file? For example,
if a person wanted to put that RebTris.r (demo tetris game) on a website for
visitors to play from the server, how would they be notified that View is
needed, or is that up to me?
Here's where you've gotten some confusion. The script itself should contain
notification that the Rebol/View interpreter is required on the client/local
machine. With Rebol/IOS, these kind of problems vanish away, because the
server and client/local machine both had rebol interpreters and the rebol
script is replicated/copied from the server to the client automatically.
Check out the Rebol/View desktop to see the older version of Rebol/IOS.
There's also the browser plug-in for Rebol, but that doesn't seem to work
with the latest version of MS IE 6 IIRC.
Andrew Martin
ICQ: 26227169 http://valley.150m.com/
[4/4] from: greggirwin:mindspring at: 25-Jan-2002 10:19
Hi Scot,
Welcome!
<< Reason I ask is that I'm in a group that is building a large scale
application that needs to be able to execute from the net on personal
computers, and Rebol seems to be the way to go, but my inexperience gets in
the way of being able to understand some of the more technical aspects. >>
I'm working on a system that is being developed with REBOL/IOS as its
platform.
Originally, the business people all talked about everything being browser
based "because we don't want the user to have to install anything. It's much
better that way." I pointed out that the browser itself needed to be
installed and periodically upgraded, and that it, as a platform, it was out
of our control. For example, if MS changes the way IE works, it could break
our stuff, not to mention the need to support multiple browsers that don't
all support the same functionality.
We'll use a web site for *some* things but we can provide a much richer user
experience with REBOL/IOS. The Link client downloads from the web site and
the installs *very* easily. Once installed, things sync up automatically.
IOS does the hard work for us so we can concentrate on our part.
Even now, a couple months into the project, some people on the business team
still say "on the web page...", when it's actually a REBOL app that they're
talking about. :)
I'm still a beginner with IOS, but I'm impressed with it, and amazed at what
it's allowing us to accomplish.
--Gregg
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