Joel,
You couldn't have said it better!
Thanks!!
Ammon
A short time ago, Joel Neely, sent an email stating:
> Hi, Carl,
> Hi, Carl,
>
> Carl Read wrote:
> > With "free" library access, I'd worry about a lot of online scripts
> > appearing that require you to have OS x,y, or z to work, (well, 90%
> > OS x, actually), thus breaking REBOL's cross-platform support.
>
> Actually, OS X is quite nice. It's essentially a Mach kernel with
> BSD Unix above that, with a Macintosh/NextStep GUI environment as
> the main user interface.
>
> ;-)
>
> OK, seriously...
>
> I tried to make the same point of your comments above during a
> previous thread about the "threat" of open source. The claim had
> been made that opening the source of the REBOL interpreter was
> likely to lead to forking of the language and the immanent demise
> of cross-platform compatibility. My response is that ANY access
> to system-dependent features (especially such things as binary
> libraries) will allow someone to write code that will run on only
> a single platform.
>
> OTOH, I question whether that's a significant issue. It's always
> possible for a programmer to write something that is so dependent
> on a particular set of assumptions, resources, and "world view"
> that it's just not worth the trouble to re-use it outside that
> regime (and said regime can be as narrow as the mind of the one
> who writes it... ;-) I'm much more concerned about whether we
> have languages that are so richly applicable and platform-neutral
> that they *avoid*forcing* us to write code with all of those
> limiting dependencies.
>
> Some of the more successful (in terms of number of users, range
> of applications, supporting literature and publications, etc...)
> languages, such as Perl, Python, Ruby, and Tcl have the property
> that you *can* write platform-neutral code if you want to, but
> you can also take advantage of platform-specific resources for
> performance or functionality when you deem it appropriate. As
> an interpreted, high-level language, REBOL must ultimately offer
> access to system-specific resources or remain marginalized with
> respect to applications where performance is an issue.
>
> -jn-
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