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This is what I like about Rebol & Red...pity Rebol didn't catch on more. The full Rebol download is a single executable (no real install) and can build GUIs, an

This is what I like about Rebol & Red...pity Rebol didn't catch on more. The full Rebol download is a single executable (no real install) and can build GUIs, and so much more in a very small amount of code.

PeCaN 9y ago
I'm always amazed when I see things like Red, with a 1MB executable with an interpreter, compiler, GUI, networking libraries, parsing libraries, and more all built in. Or the QNX demo disk back in the day. OS, GUI, web browser (with javascript), full clustering support, and more, on a single 1.44MB floppy.
- throwaway7645 9y ago
  I've heard of the QNX OS...that seems magical.
hdhzy 9y ago
Not to mention Red can cross compile for multiple OSes and the parse dialect that is basically generalized, readable regular expressions. My personal theory why Rebol/Red didn't succeed in the mainstream is steep learning curve, it's hard to discover how to do things if you haven't already done some substantial programming work in it. While built-in help is good you need to know what you're looking for. (Delphi had better help in this matter, with examples etc.). By the way I wonder why Pecan's post is [dead], it doesn't seem to be violating any rule.
- exikyut 9y ago
  Open it (click the duration), and click vouch. Arc has some (necessarily-)undocumented flagging code, and it frequently backfires. The worst-case scenario is when you open the account in question and every single comment is grey... it hurts to see. (In that case, the account itself has been flagged. Not quite the same as reddit's shadowbanning, but only technically not the same.) It's bittersweet that the moderation here is paid: there are AFAIK only two people (but don't quote me on that). There were some hazy plans to give some users fractionally elevated capabilities at some point, but it just hasn't happened yet.
  - hdhzy 9y ago
    Thanks a lot for this tip! Actually I'm amazed on how little workforce is necessary to keep this place running. I'm browsing with showdead on and rarely see the flagging backfires like this one.
- spinningarrow 9y ago
  > didn’t succeed in the mainstream Is that true of Red? I was playing with it the other day and it looked really promising, and I was under the impression that it’s still quite new and hasn’t reached 1.0 (my point is that it might not be at a stage where we can write it off).
  - throwaway7645 9y ago
    Yea, sorry bout that. Red isn't 1.0 yet and I have very high hopes for it. I meant just Rebol (ancestor of Red) in my earlier post and corrected it.
  - hdhzy 9y ago
    > it’s still quite new and hasn’t reached 1.0 According to the main page [0] the project was unveiled 6 years ago. For comparison Rust (a random example) started 7 years ago [1] but compare results for "Rust" and "Red/Rebol" on Algolia [2] (sorry no deep links). It's clear Red is niche. I'm not writing it off. It's definitely one of most interesting languages and runtimes but it's super hard to capture people's attention nowadays when you don't have support of large companies (Go, Rust, .NET). [0]: http://www.red-lang.org/search?updated-max=2011-03-29T15:38:00%2B02:00&max-results=7&start=40&by-date=false&m=1 http://www.red-lang.org/search?updated-max=2011-03-29T15:38:... [1]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rust_(programming_language) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rust_(programming_language) [2]: https://hn.algolia.com/ https://hn.algolia.com/
    - spinningarrow 9y ago
      Hmm, you're right. I didn't realise it was 6 years old!
exikyut 9y ago
Kdb (the weird line-noise functional programming language) is similar. The trial version is a 200KB binary.
- eggy 9y ago
  Isn't Kdb the database you can program in Q now, but also has K the PL too? I program in J, which is similar. I don't consider it line noise, but I get the drift.
  - hoosieree 9y ago
    [edit] yes, KDB+ is the database product. Q is one interpreter that interops with it. K is another. I am not 100% sure but I think Q is actually K plus a standard library of "Q words" so you can write K directly if you want. I think the reason for Q is as a more familiar interface for people with SQL experience.
- throwaway7645 9y ago
  The author of Kdb is Arthur Whitney. He is another extreme programmer who has had a huge influence on fintech and made boat loads of cash I would presume.
  - hoosieree 9y ago
    Just want to say that it's awesome to see Rebol/Red and K mentioned in a comment thread about Chuck Moore. It's interesting because Rebol and K have almost totally opposite philosophies about how software should be structured. K emphasizes flat namespaces and leans heavily on the primitives and only a handful of functions. Rebol encourages writing DSLs to fit the language to the problem. But despite different philosophies, they both allow incredible programmer productivity. I think a lot of this productivity comes from adherence to "Do not speculate!" and therefore not having a bunch of non-useful functionality or boilerplate for the end-user programmer to have to manage.
    - throwaway7645 9y ago
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PeCaN 9y ago

I'm always amazed when I see things like Red, with a 1MB executable with an interpreter, compiler, GUI, networking libraries, parsing libraries, and more all built in. Or the QNX demo disk back in the day. OS, GUI, web browser (with javascript), full clustering support, and more, on a single 1.44MB floppy.

throwaway7645 9y ago
I've heard of the QNX OS...that seems magical.

hdhzy 9y ago

Not to mention Red can cross compile for multiple OSes and the parse dialect that is basically generalized, readable regular expressions. My personal theory why Rebol/Red didn't succeed in the mainstream is steep learning curve, it's hard to discover how to do things if you haven't already done some substantial programming work in it. While built-in help is good you need to know what you're looking for. (Delphi had better help in this matter, with examples etc.). By the way I wonder why Pecan's post is [dead], it doesn't seem to be violating any rule.

exikyut 9y ago
Open it (click the duration), and click vouch. Arc has some (necessarily-)undocumented flagging code, and it frequently backfires. The worst-case scenario is when you open the account in question and every single comment is grey... it hurts to see. (In that case, the account itself has been flagged. Not quite the same as reddit's shadowbanning, but only technically not the same.) It's bittersweet that the moderation here is paid: there are AFAIK only two people (but don't quote me on that). There were some hazy plans to give some users fractionally elevated capabilities at some point, but it just hasn't happened yet.
- hdhzy 9y ago
  Thanks a lot for this tip! Actually I'm amazed on how little workforce is necessary to keep this place running. I'm browsing with showdead on and rarely see the flagging backfires like this one.
spinningarrow 9y ago
> didn’t succeed in the mainstream Is that true of Red? I was playing with it the other day and it looked really promising, and I was under the impression that it’s still quite new and hasn’t reached 1.0 (my point is that it might not be at a stage where we can write it off).
- throwaway7645 9y ago
  Yea, sorry bout that. Red isn't 1.0 yet and I have very high hopes for it. I meant just Rebol (ancestor of Red) in my earlier post and corrected it.
- hdhzy 9y ago
  > it’s still quite new and hasn’t reached 1.0 According to the main page [0] the project was unveiled 6 years ago. For comparison Rust (a random example) started 7 years ago [1] but compare results for "Rust" and "Red/Rebol" on Algolia [2] (sorry no deep links). It's clear Red is niche. I'm not writing it off. It's definitely one of most interesting languages and runtimes but it's super hard to capture people's attention nowadays when you don't have support of large companies (Go, Rust, .NET). [0]: http://www.red-lang.org/search?updated-max=2011-03-29T15:38:00%2B02:00&max-results=7&start=40&by-date=false&m=1 http://www.red-lang.org/search?updated-max=2011-03-29T15:38:... [1]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rust_(programming_language) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rust_(programming_language) [2]: https://hn.algolia.com/ https://hn.algolia.com/
  - spinningarrow 9y ago
    Hmm, you're right. I didn't realise it was 6 years old!

exikyut 9y ago

Kdb (the weird line-noise functional programming language) is similar. The trial version is a 200KB binary.

eggy 9y ago
Isn't Kdb the database you can program in Q now, but also has K the PL too? I program in J, which is similar. I don't consider it line noise, but I get the drift.
- hoosieree 9y ago
  [edit] yes, KDB+ is the database product. Q is one interpreter that interops with it. K is another. I am not 100% sure but I think Q is actually K plus a standard library of "Q words" so you can write K directly if you want. I think the reason for Q is as a more familiar interface for people with SQL experience.
throwaway7645 9y ago
The author of Kdb is Arthur Whitney. He is another extreme programmer who has had a huge influence on fintech and made boat loads of cash I would presume.
- hoosieree 9y ago
  Just want to say that it's awesome to see Rebol/Red and K mentioned in a comment thread about Chuck Moore. It's interesting because Rebol and K have almost totally opposite philosophies about how software should be structured. K emphasizes flat namespaces and leans heavily on the primitives and only a handful of functions. Rebol encourages writing DSLs to fit the language to the problem. But despite different philosophies, they both allow incredible programmer productivity. I think a lot of this productivity comes from adherence to "Do not speculate!" and therefore not having a bunch of non-useful functionality or boilerplate for the end-user programmer to have to manage.
  - throwaway7645 9y ago

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