REBOL View 1.3

GedB · Post by **GedB** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 3:12 pm

If you want to try something completely different then give REBOL View 1.3 a spin.

http://www.rebol.com/news/rt5610.html

Like PureBasic, REBOL has its roots in the amiga: Rebol's creator, Carl Sassenrath, was the architect of the original Amiga OS.

The Amiga sensability show through in REBOL so there is much to the PBers liking. For example, the whole thing is just a 635kb download. This isn't just a Demo, it is the whole environment with everything you'll need.

Theres no need to install, either. The whole thing will just run from the exe.

It makes a great complement to PBs low level abilities.

http://www.rebol.com/bio-carl.html [1]

theNerd · Post by **theNerd** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 8:49 pm

This will probably sound like a stupid question but what exactly *is* REBOL? A general programming language? An Internet programming language? Can you help define its role and purpose for me? Thanks.

theNerd · Post by **theNerd** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 9:19 pm

Okay, ignore that last question. I checked REBOL out quite a long time ago and couldn't quite figure out how it fits in our what its uses are. The updated website is a lot more clear. It really looks cool!

theNerd · Post by **theNerd** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 9:51 pm

Looks like it can get awefully expensive. On this page (http://www.rebol.com/ios-intro.html) it says:

IOS products / price:

IOS Express - Works through your existing web server. The system operates completely within your organization. Express costs $2,000 which includes IOS Serve and 10 Link users. Additional users are $100 each with discounts for systems of 30 or more users. Users can install the Link client on as many systems as they wish. The Serve is provided on the platform of your choice, the Link client is shipped for both Windows and Linux. Other client platforms are available on a custom basis. Sixty days of support is included with purchase.

IOS Alliance - A support program for commercial developers via a direct IOS connection to REBOL Technologies. Please contact us for more information.

dell_jockey · Post by **dell_jockey** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 9:59 pm

Indeed, cost is what put me off..... Otherwise it looks like a nice product.

GedB · Post by **GedB** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 10:38 pm

The core rebol product is free, as is REBOL View.

You can distibute REBOL applications for free, but the other user must download the REBOL environment themselves and the source is accessible.

For a couple of hundred dollars you can buy the SDK, which will allow you to compile standalone encrypted executables.

The IOS is an application that uses REBOL, and is aimed at large organisations. This is why it is so expensive.

Post by **Dare2** » Sat Jun 18, 2005 12:20 am

Hi GedB,

Just briefly browsed through the Rebol site. Interesting (and interesting syntax). And some pretty extensive abilities!

Don't have time to do a thorough looksee right now, but was interested to see if it handled DLLs. Couldn't find any ref to that .. so .. sorry to bug you with this .. but can it?

Thanks.

GedB · Post by **GedB** » Sat Jun 18, 2005 9:25 pm

Good question.

The external library interface is part of the command product, which is one of the expensive premium verisons:

http://www.rebol.com/docs/library.html
http://www.rebol.net/article/0141.html
http://www.rebol.com/command.html

The interesting thing is that this feature appears to be included in basic package for View 1.3.

Post by **Dare2** » Sun Jun 19, 2005 11:40 am

Hi GedB,

Thanks!

Installed Rebol, but haven't had a chance to really look at it yet.

dagcrack · Post by **dagcrack** » Mon Jun 20, 2005 1:44 pm

Well.. I dont like what I see so far (about rebol).
Seems feature rich but ... eh...

GedB · Post by **GedB** » Mon Jun 20, 2005 2:19 pm

What is it you don't like?

Post by **Dare2** » Mon Jun 20, 2005 3:21 pm

dagcrack wrote:Well.. I dont like what I see so far (about rebol).
Seems feature rich but ... eh...

GedB wrote:What is it you don't like?

Just about everything .. bit hard to find a positive post from dagcrack these last few months.

Num3 · Post by **Num3** » Tue Jun 21, 2005 10:44 am

I don't like it either...

Seems to be a basic language built over Java....

So it's just bytecode...

RapidQ is better and free

USCode · Post by **USCode** » Tue Jun 21, 2005 8:30 pm

If you guys are interested in REBOL, you should really check out Tcl/Tk instead:
http://www.tcl.tk
Free downloads: http://www.activestate.com/Products/ActiveTcl/

Open source, very deep (feature-wise), stable, cross-platform, etc. And for distributing your application as a single-executable with the interpreter, there's Starkits:
http://www.equi4.com/starkit.html
Available on lots of platforms: http://www.equi4.com/pub/tk/downloads.html

For you SQLite lovers, SQLite works best with Tcl/Tk:
http://www.tcl.tk/community/tcl2004/Pap ... p/drh.html

GedB · Post by **GedB** » Tue Jun 21, 2005 11:01 pm

Num3,

It isn't built over Java, it has its own runtime.

In contrast to Java, the runtime is only 250k in size.

The view runtime, which includes all of the GUI stuff, is still only 635k.