Rebol VS Browser

Hello everyone. Ive been keeping my eye on Rebol for a few weeks now as an alternative to dynamic HTML based applications. Before i continue just want to state my background: Programmer Analyst (currently unemployed - market horrible) Built a few J2EE based applications, VB, Powerbuilder, MS ASP. Knowledge of networking, Database Design. What I'm looking for in a development environment is a separation of GUI, data access, and business logic layers where the GUI is executed on the client, and the others are ran on the server. Currently the J2EE, .NET environment are doing this but only support HTML front ends. I guess they now refer to this as "X-Internet" applications. I do know that Java and .NET have GUI implementations, but they are not internet based AKA Fat clients. I have found some technologies that do this: Canoo ULC http://www.canoo.com/ulc/ Trying to avoid Java - to much complication for something that should be easy - plus the license on these is expensive. Esual http://www.esual.com/ Dont really know much about this one - Java based Most likely expensive. Altio http://www.altio.com/ Looks ok - custom GUI framework $$$$ AppStream http://www.appstream.com/ Cool technology - completely different then what im looking for I'm just stating this to help understand what I'm looking for, and if Rebol is comparable or if Rebol is more of a scripting tool like Perl, Python etc. So the question from me : is Rebol currently or moving in the direction of these type of application platforms? Internet Based - Changes and updates to code done on server, and not needed on client Nice GUI - a better user experience , HTML is pathetic Database Layer / Resource pooling on the Server - connection management (pooling), drivers only needed on server, scalability, something like Java application servers take care of (Websphere, Weblogic etc.) Business Logic on Server - server handles all logic, connections using SOAP, Web Services, native libraries Platform Independent An important thing to me as being able to develop applications using the platform without spending thousands of dollars. I like the Oracle model, can basically download any app and develop with it, but a license is required to put it into a production environment. Thanks for reading my gibberish hehe. Ben Dempsey

Hi Ben, You may like the Command SDK, although it cost you some money. I have found the money on Rebol weel spent interms of power and productivity. It morphs into what you want it to be. --Maarten Ben Dempsey wrote:

Hi Ben, BD> What I'm looking for in a development environment is a separation of BD> GUI, data access, and business logic layers where the GUI is executed on BD> the client, and the others are ran on the server. OK, REBOL is all about messaging; the exchange of information between people and computers. It also has great net support built in. Strangely, we don't see it being exploited in that area - but I think we will in time. In any case, REBOL is great for this kind of thing BUT, you'll be rolling your own right now. People like Maarten Koopmans and DocKimbel have built tools - Rugby (request broker) and UniServe (multi-protocol server framework), respectively - to facilitate this kind of development, but REBOL itself just provides a foundation for you to build on. Here's something else to consider. REBOL is really targeted at programming in the small right now - you can do a lot with a little. That said, dialects provide enormous potential for how you format and interpret the data you are exchanging between components. BD> ...if Rebol is comparable or if Rebol is more of a scripting tool like Perl, BD> Python etc. It's a lightweight, high-level language. You can certainly use it for scripting, but it's much more than just a scripting tool. BD> So the question from me : is Rebol currently or moving in the direction BD> of these type of application platforms? IOS is the direction RT is taking REBOL (for their part). Lots of people are working on projects out in the ether, some of which lean in that direction. BD> Internet Based - Changes and updates to code done on server, and not BD> needed on client REBOL apps are not "server based". You can do CGI stuff, and you could certainly build a system that dynamically serves up REBOL, but that's not how it works by default. REBOL code and data is easy to send from place to place and with its code/data duality view of the world, pretty much anything is possible. BD> Nice GUI - a better user experience , HTML is pathetic Yes. Nice GUI. OS agnostic, some controls/widgets/styles are a bit weak and/or underdocumented but the GUI dialect (VID) is built in REBOL, so you can tweak it or roll your own (are you detecting a theme here :). VID is set for improvement (menus, trees, resizing, and focus issues are things being talked about) but it's very capable as is. Check out FTPGadget and Safeworlds to see some commercial REBOL apps. BD> Database Layer / Resource pooling on the Server - connection management BD> (pooling), drivers only needed on server, scalability, something like BD> Java application servers take care of (Websphere, Weblogic etc.) BD> Business Logic on Server - server handles all logic, connections using BD> SOAP, Web Services, native libraries Nothing like that built into REBOL. Rubgy makes it easy to serve up remote functionality. Depending on what you're building, IOS might be something to look into as well - solution wise. BD> Platform Independent Yes. Core runs on *lots* of things, View (the GUI) runs on about 10 platforms I think. BD> An important thing to me as being able to develop applications using the BD> platform without spending thousands of dollars. I like the Oracle BD> model, can basically download any app and develop with it, but a license BD> is required to put it into a production environment. You can use the free versions of Core and View to get started. Commercial versions run from about $100 for View to $500 for Command. IOS is more, but it's a lot more than just the language too. HTH! -- Gregg