Wow - actually a pretty good evaluation of various technologies and the reasons to adopt them (or not) at an organizational level. While I personally enjoy REBOL, using it daily for a variety of tasks, and to test out programming theories, it's hard for me to recommend it to a large organization. Although in my current position, there is a good chance that we may develop a 2.0 version of our product using IOS in spite of the barriers, because we believe that the benefits REBOL can bring to the table may outweigh it's hurdles.
Currently I've been doing a lot of programming in Java. My last 7 years of programming for hire have spanned 68000 assembly, C, C++, FoxPro, Access, Java, Visual Basic, SQL, PL-SQL, Perl, ASP (VBScript & JScript), Lotus Script, PHP, Lite, Python, and REBOL. I've used REBOL since it was available for download, and have also used Java since it's beta (although I took a break until Swing got settled in). Every language has a place, some are just really good at doing certain things. Also I'm a stong believer in not re-inventing the wheel where possible. Java is good. There's a reason it's been widely adopted. I don't think REBOL is going to slay Java, nor was it set out to do so. Java and Rebol can co-exist, along with C, C++, and dozens if not hundreds of other languages. When I have to explain things to my friends who are non-programmers, I usually use something along the following: With earlier languages like C, you have to really work hard to solve the problem at hand. You have to be concerned with not just your problem (say, how to calculate payroll) but with problems imposed on you by the underlying computer hardware - memory allocation, etc. In the "old days" you had to be really smart, and keep track of a lot of things in order to write software. With newer languages like Java, you don't have to be as concerned with the underlying details. You can largely focus on the problems at hand, instead of writing a memory manager, or other "implementation detail". In essence, Java and languages like VB are lowering the barrier to entry. Making it possible for mere mortals to program usefully. Sure, this isn't always a good thing, but, using Java or REBOL really makes me appreciate the underlying work that has gone into them so that I don't have to think about irritating details (until I find a bug). - Porter ----- Original Message ----- From: "laplace" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, May 03, 2002 1:14 PM Subject: [REBOL] Re: evaluation result (or... goodbye) > I have many critics about rebol myself I will post about that one day. But > as for this mail I talk about the details not about the principle of > criticism (which I vote for). About the of what I have read there's nothing > more than techno-marketing arguments that Sun promotes. That's why I have > the impression that the decision was alreday taken and that arguments were > just to apparently "rationalize" the decision. Shortly saif the argument > could be resumed by "We take Java because it is Sun". So no need to make a > long study about that. I have been consultant for somme Multinationals and I > have some clients that asked me to justify TECHNICALLY their decisions to > the management. So whatever I would really think is useless, I have to only > find "good" arguments for the client. > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Carl Read" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Friday, May 03, 2002 3:01 PM > Subject: [REBOL] Re: evaluation result (or... goodbye) > > > > On 03-May-02, laplace wrote: > > > > > A study of researchers shows that many decisions are taken long > > > BEFORE technical arguments are presented and that those arguments > > > are above all used to confirm decisions already taken than to > > > objectively evaluate the best solutions. In some cases Java is > > > better, on other cases it is not. So I don't think that people has > > > to generalize and I don't understand why there is a long list about > > > Java as this is a mailing list about rebol. > > > > I thought that a good post, especially as Boris had been asking the > > list for advice. A useful way to say thankyou for the feedback he'd > > received, as even though REBOL wasn't chosen, it's feedback in > > return. Think of it as a comparison of REBOL and Java (and other > > software) and not as a post to start a discussion about Java. > > > > People may look at REBOL and try to work out what useful things they > > can do with it, while others like Boris will have a particular need > > and look at REBOL to see if it's the right tool for the job. There's > > more likely to be success with the first scenario than the second at > > the moment, but evaluations like Boris's may help to up the hit rate > > for the second if notice is taken of them. > > > > -- > > Carl Read > > > > -- > > To unsubscribe from this list, please send an email to > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "unsubscribe" in the > > subject, without the quotes. > > > > -- > To unsubscribe from this list, please send an email to > [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "unsubscribe" in the > subject, without the quotes. > > -- To unsubscribe from this list, please send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "unsubscribe" in the subject, without the quotes.
