The Rebol
A new programming language by the creator of the Amiga 'EXEC',
Carl Sassenrath. It is intended to be a small, flexible language
for sharing content (documents, databases, programs, multimedia)
between people, computers, processors and networks. Rebol,
(pronounced Rebel) stands for Relative Expression-Based Object
Language, is designed to be both platform and network
protocol-independent. The application is greatly simplified through
the use of expressions that are understandable by the user as well
as the computer. It also supports a wide range of current APIs and
standard protocols. For people who have never heard of it, it is
similar in many ways to ARexx, shipped as standard with all Amiga
from version 2.00. It is an interpreted scripting language that
allows Rebol-based software to be run on any operating system that
the Rebol kernel is available for. Unlike Java from Sun, Rebol
takes a more open approach with versions available for a wide range
of systems.
Based upon the concept that Simple Things
Should Be Simple, Difficult things should be possible, Rebol
is a distributed, object language which interprets symbolic,
dynamically-scooped, relational environments and promises to
revolutionise the way people interact with their computer. Carl
Sassenrath commented to Business Wire,
"All other programming and scripting languages are
computer-centric languages. REBOL, on the other hand, is
human-centric. The introduction of REBOL heralds a new era in which
people control their computers, not the other way around."
The REBOL/Core messaging language is OS-independent, in a
similar style to Java, and best of all the Amiga supports it from
the beginning. The current list of operating system support has
increased dramatically and is available on the AIX, AmigaOS,
FreeBSD, HP-UX, SGI IRIX, Linux Red Hat, Linux Debian, Linux
Slackware, Macintosh PPC, Solaris 2.6 SPARC, and Windows 95/98/NT
platforms. Carl Sassenrath has also pointed out his willingness to
support other formats if there is demand for it.
Future versions will boast multithreading, UniCode support, as
well as direct support for visual and audio output- one of the many
problems with version 1 was the lack of support for creating full
GUI-driven applications, forcing the programmer to tie it in with
another language such as MUI. There will also be more support for
internet protocols and new datatype support, as well as greater
error feedback.
Many industrial analysts have also commented on its ease-of-use
compared to other languages, in particular, Rick Snyder, president
of Avalon Investments, and more interesting from an Amiga point of
view, former president of Gateway 2000. The language has gained
support for its modern outlook on computer technology addressing
technological problems that did not exist 5 years ago. When
compared to the 15 year old languages currently available the Rebol
language has a considerable advantage over its competitors.
To find out more go to WWW.rebol.com. There is also a mailing
list that can be subscribed by sending a mail to rebot@rebol.com with Add in the
subject.
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