There really isn't much point to rebol for generic application development.
Why is that? Is it simply from the standpoint that there are other tools available which support more platforms? I might agree with that in principle, but I also do like what it seems you can do with Rebol with very little code. I can see uses for this within my industry.
Now, we have this real split in the marketplace, where some are using Android, some using iOS, some using Blackberry, some using WinMo - on their Smartphones, and soon, on their tablets....
and yet now Rebol punks out and doesn't support any of those devices.
When I first started looking at Rebol, I was thinking that I might have an immediate business application for Rebol, but now after learning that it doesn't support the various mobile platforms, I'm probably going to have use something else. Most likely something much more costly and bloated.
..unfortunately Rebol doesn't solve too many problems, and I love scripting languages, and I agree with a lot of Carl's rhetoric, I just don't believe he's found any great answers.
I too gravitate towards the scripting languages. While I haven't looked at Rebol deeply enough, I do like what Rebol seems to present in terms of the amount of data that needs to be exchanged and the generally small amount of code required. I think Carl does deserve some credit for that.
I might try an experiment to reproduce some fairly complicated scripts I've written in other languages by using Rebol. I think this would give me a pretty good idea of Rebol's capabilities.
To be fair to Rebol, I should also note that my most used scripting language doesn't support anything other than Windows.
but without support for the hot platforms, I'll have to pass.
It's been difficult over the years, but honestly, I'm glad that I didn't take this approach with the Amiga. If I had, I would have missed out on a lot of fun and learning.
Regards,
AmigaEd
