Heh heh, I was wondering when Mark's OSCAR posts would provoke a response
from people at REBOL Technologies (RT). As a suggestion, perhaps Mark could
limit his OSCAR recruiting efforts to a monthly status report on this list.
For the past four years I've been using Trolltech's Qt GUI toolkit
(http://www.trolltech.com) for my user interfaces. Even though it was not
open source when I started using it, all source code was provided and it was
free for free products. If either of those conditions had not existed I
would not have used it. Since then I have had the companies I have worked
for purchase multiple licenses. Trolltech is a successful company (they've
just opened a new office in the states and raised the price for a Windows
license to almost 2 grand!) and now their products are open source.
I hope RT will pursue a similar course of action.
Thanks for your post Scott (Jones?). The interview with Larry Wall is a good
read. As a Linux user for the past five years I know the value and security
of open source.
REBOL, to be fully realized, will become a foundation technology
(infrastructure) for larger systems. In the interview Scott mentioned, Larry
Wall says "What I do see is a growing recognition that anything resembling
large-scale infrastructure ought to be open source". I agree that
infrastructure is best when it is 'owned' by everyone. There is little worse
than being forced to use inadequate tools (Microsoft anyone?) or seeing
valuable tools die (the sad fate of the Amiga). Open source insures us
against both of these extreme technological maladies (did I make that up or
did I read that somewhere?).
Hi Volker Nitsch. You seem to be a little confused as to what open source
means. Where is the audio in REBOL? Where are the fast vector-graphics
(Flash)? Where is the fast GUI with clipboard/DND? Where is 3D?
If I had the source code to REBOL, I could probably add audio for OSS (unix)
in a few hours. In a few weeks I could add model! and animation! datatypes.
If I don't have the source and the ability to add datatypes to REBOL I'm SOL
and I wait with everyone else for RT to implement it. I am frustrated about
not being able to use REBOL where I would like to because of the restrictions
(e.g. no system calls!) RT places on it.
Before RT had funding, I recall they were asking for donations.
I would never give money to someone so they can develop *their* product. If
it had been an open source venture where they were developing a product to be
released to *me*, I would have gladly given upwards of $1000.
And now for some less focused thought.
Open source is very zen. Everyone owns it yet no one controls it. It can be
nurtured and harvested to provide income for the care-givers. It can be
focused and shaped to arcane purposes. It can be viciously hacked!
REBOL hints at truth
sequestered on its island
openness awaits
Cheers,
-Karl
P.S. At work I'm writing a REBOL-like scripting language for video games. My
company is very pro open source. Keep your fingers crossed!
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