REBOL Developer News - Nov/2002

Here is a quick update on what's happening with REBOL - and, the many changes that you can expect to see during November.

• REBOL/Core
  Minor release that include bug fixes and changes. Important fixes will include the /skip (file seek) problem, and /direct/read/lines problem, as well as others.
• REBOL/View
  Including the above changes and a few new VID styles. In addition, VID has been modified to reduce its memory usage by making a few fields of the VID-face object optional in Layout. (For significant VID style changes, see below.)
• REBOL/Core and REBOL/View licenses
  Will become less restrictive. You can use as many copies of /Core and /View within your organization for free.
• REBOL/Base and REBOL/Face
  We have created minimized versions of REBOL that boot significantly faster and take much less memory. These versions are exclusively for professional developers who want to shape precisely what they need from REBOL, and they will be part of our new SDK, mentioned below.
• REBOL/Encap
  A number of improvements have been made to Encap to make it easier to build a single executable file that includes both REBOL and your program. This new version includes a built-in preprocessor for #includes, better command line options (similar to what you would expect from a compiler), drag and drop builds, and more optimized output. /Encap is part of the new SDK, below.
• REBOL/SDK
  A new package for developers that includes /Base, /Face, /Encap, prebol 2.0 (preprocessor), installer (you can now make custom self-installing programs), and source code to REBOL source-based modules, including protocols, network modules, view modules (including the source code to VID), and more. Programs created with the SDK can be used in an unlimited fashion within your organization (but, sales of programs will require our standard /Encap royalty license). Price: $249 for standard package. Additional costs for /Command modules and advance payment on redistribution. Relaxed licensing on use of REBOL API within Encapped programs. Upgrades will be available to existing Encap users. Recent purchasers of Encap (2002) will receive the SDK at no charge. Educational discounts are also available.
• REBOL/IOS
  We will be updating REBOL/Serve and REBOL/Link to be consistent with the above changes in related products. (E.g. so fixes like /skip seek will become available in IOS reblets too.)

Other projects also underway:

• The VID Enhancement Project: Purpose is to improve the capabilities of standard VID styles. This is a coordinated effort by a group of developers and us. Complete source code will be available and open, and we hope to include it as part of future versions of REBOL/View.
• REBOL Script Library 2.0: Purpose is to significantly improve the REBOL on-line script library. This is also a coordinated effort among a small team of developers who are using IOS to collaborate and manage the library. More information to be released soon.
• New Feedback System
  Yes, we will say it: "Our feedback system sucks." There. Now you know that even we agree with you on that topic. We are overhauling the entire system to allow us to: 1) more rapidly respond to feedback, 2) better keep track of bugs and enhancements, 3) provide higher quality answers, 4) give you the option of being notified when a bug is fixed, 5) forward new FAQs to the FAQ web-page in a timely fashion.
• Additional Programmer Documentation
  For both View and IOS developers.
• Monthly "State of the REBOLion" updates
  Starting as of this message we will provide regular monthly news updates to keep you informed. (We also hope to recruit members from the REBOL community to contribute useful information, hints, docs, and scripts.)
• Education support
  In recent months we've also had a strong interest from a variety of educational institutions, including many international universities, and we encourage and support the use of REBOL for teaching new programming techniques and better methods of Internet communications. We will offer significant discounts on our professional products to educational organizations.

Finally, we want to let you know that REBOL Technologies remains fully committed to our language, products, and community. We know that REBOL is an amazing technology and tool. We use REBOL hundreds of times a day in every facet of our business, and it has saved us significant time and money over the years. We hope you have had a similar experience, and we will continue to improve on it.