StreamCast Networks (Morpheus, MusicCity) chooses REBOL Technologies.
October 29, 2001 8:43 PM Subscribe
StreamCast Networks (Morpheus, MusicCity) chooses REBOL Technologies. This could be the big break for REBOL (sounds like rebel), one of the thousands of little languages out there that wants to be a contender.
Granted, it's not open-sourced, and is ridiculed and mocked by Slashdot. On the other hand it's got some interesting features: Scheme like capabilities, urls and email as datatypes, cheapness and smallness (350k) and availability on 11 different operating systems
The REBOL community is tiny but they like to write things like blog/wiki things, network protocol handlers, control functions, and their own mini-languages
Granted, it's not open-sourced, and is ridiculed and mocked by Slashdot. On the other hand it's got some interesting features: Scheme like capabilities, urls and email as datatypes, cheapness and smallness (350k) and availability on 11 different operating systems
The REBOL community is tiny but they like to write things like blog/wiki things, network protocol handlers, control functions, and their own mini-languages
rebol is an interpreted language, iirc. it is available for free (as in you can download it without paying anything), but in the slashdot/unix programmer/NOC troll community, not being open sourced (which it is not) is a jinx.
i am personally a little bitter that LISP, Scheme, and even ML do not have interpreted systems as widely used as perl and python (though python is an excellently designed language -- much nicer to work with than perl, in my singular opinion). but rebol's syntax is quite a bit different from what most programmers working with 4GL (interpreted) languages are used to (perl/C syntax). the brackets remind me of SmallTalk, but only slightly.
posted by moz at 9:24 PM on October 29, 2001
i am personally a little bitter that LISP, Scheme, and even ML do not have interpreted systems as widely used as perl and python (though python is an excellently designed language -- much nicer to work with than perl, in my singular opinion). but rebol's syntax is quite a bit different from what most programmers working with 4GL (interpreted) languages are used to (perl/C syntax). the brackets remind me of SmallTalk, but only slightly.
posted by moz at 9:24 PM on October 29, 2001
The other comments are way over my head. I am not a programmer or a language expert.
I am a user of software for downloading of music, video and movies when speed, capacity and power permit.
I was helped immensely by the post last week on AudioGalaxy installing "spyware" without telling the consumer (me). I should by know that nothing is free but I was not aware of the level of danger to sensitive data on all our machines with software like vx2 and respond miter.
I have cleaned these up on my pc but have lost my appetite for on line music sharing. Maybe this new partnership will help bring us to a new generation and hopefully thwart the RIAA in the process.
posted by coraggio at 9:47 PM on October 29, 2001
I am a user of software for downloading of music, video and movies when speed, capacity and power permit.
I was helped immensely by the post last week on AudioGalaxy installing "spyware" without telling the consumer (me). I should by know that nothing is free but I was not aware of the level of danger to sensitive data on all our machines with software like vx2 and respond miter.
I have cleaned these up on my pc but have lost my appetite for on line music sharing. Maybe this new partnership will help bring us to a new generation and hopefully thwart the RIAA in the process.
posted by coraggio at 9:47 PM on October 29, 2001
The Morpheus application allows users to search, find, and execute content, including audio, video, photos, reference data,
reports, documents, and applications.
in other words, MP3's, pr0n and warez. When was the last time yu used a peer-to-peer to download "reference data"?
This seems like a pretty transparent effort by StreamCast to re-brand itself as something more than a leeching-app before it gets sued back into the stone age. They've been trying to pass themselves off as an alternative news distribution source for a while, but all I've found are tasteless Bin Laden cartoons.
posted by signal at 11:32 PM on October 29, 2001
reports, documents, and applications.
in other words, MP3's, pr0n and warez. When was the last time yu used a peer-to-peer to download "reference data"?
This seems like a pretty transparent effort by StreamCast to re-brand itself as something more than a leeching-app before it gets sued back into the stone age. They've been trying to pass themselves off as an alternative news distribution source for a while, but all I've found are tasteless Bin Laden cartoons.
posted by signal at 11:32 PM on October 29, 2001
Well, there have been times I've thought about it, but tragically no one else seems to have anything I need...
Of course, once I really needed an audio copy of The War of the Worlds (scary broadcast) and Morpheus was there to help.
posted by j.edwards at 11:43 PM on October 29, 2001
Of course, once I really needed an audio copy of The War of the Worlds (scary broadcast) and Morpheus was there to help.
posted by j.edwards at 11:43 PM on October 29, 2001
Lots of people download my history essays from Kazaa. Not as many as those who download Radiohead/Weezer/Dandy Warhols/Elis Costello or Delirious but a few.
posted by nedrichards at 1:39 AM on October 30, 2001
posted by nedrichards at 1:39 AM on October 30, 2001
If anyone's interested in programming languages, check out lambda (this is vaguely self-linking - I used to be a contributor there, but got involved in some other stuff).
posted by andrew cooke at 1:47 AM on October 30, 2001
posted by andrew cooke at 1:47 AM on October 30, 2001
I am a python fan, so I am biased, but this sounds like a gimmick to me. Python has URL and e-mail classes as well, but you don't have to load them in (they are part of the std library but not the interpreter) and it's very intuitive to pick up for non-experts and you can into more powerful features if you wish.
posted by costas at 4:06 AM on October 30, 2001
posted by costas at 4:06 AM on October 30, 2001
You don't hafta load them. they're built in. (one thing that pisses me off about rebol though, you can't define new natives)
Sassenrath has said he'll consider open-sourcing rebol at some point in the future.
moz: There's a scheme interpreter at parrotcode.org, so you'll be able to run it anywhere perl6 will run!
Also, they use a BN parsing system which is kind of the whole point of the language, it's really this framework for running what they call "messaging languages" little small languages to interface between applications.
I like it coz I can fit the interpreter and lots of scripts on one floppy. It's very nice for ad hoc stuff, i dunno how well it would scale to large projects.
posted by sonofsamiam at 6:36 AM on October 30, 2001
Sassenrath has said he'll consider open-sourcing rebol at some point in the future.
moz: There's a scheme interpreter at parrotcode.org, so you'll be able to run it anywhere perl6 will run!
Also, they use a BN parsing system which is kind of the whole point of the language, it's really this framework for running what they call "messaging languages" little small languages to interface between applications.
I like it coz I can fit the interpreter and lots of scripts on one floppy. It's very nice for ad hoc stuff, i dunno how well it would scale to large projects.
posted by sonofsamiam at 6:36 AM on October 30, 2001
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posted by bloggboy at 8:54 PM on October 29, 2001