New Messaging Language REBOL Transforms Information Exchange over Networks

Cuts Application Solution Lengths from
Thousands of Lines of Code to Hundreds

The Language of the Free Now Available for Download

UKIAH, Calif. – October 1, 1998 – REBOL Technologies (www.rebol.com) today announced the release of REBOL/Core V1.0, a network messaging language designed to revolutionize the exchange and interpretation of information on the Internet. REBOL (pronounced "REB-ul") represents a powerful new domain of computer languages – described as context-sensitive by computer scientists. By their nature, languages in this domain are more robust, simple, and elegant than C++ and Java, and also more customizable and easier-to-understand than scripting languages like PERL and Tcl. 

REBOL/Core is 100% platform- and operating system-independent, free of charge, and immediately available for download at www.rebol.com. This first release provides support for the AmigaOS, BSD, Linux x86 (Red Hat, Debian, and Slackware), Macintosh, Solaris 2.6 SPARC, and Windows 95/98/NT platforms. 

REBOL challenges the common belief that software and development languages must be complex in order to be productive. It is the product of founder, CEO, and AmigaOS creator Carl Sassenrath’s twenty years of research and development on the requirements for an ideal computer language. REBOL improves productivity because it is easy-to-learn, easy-to-customize, elegant, and robust. By harnessing the powerful capabilities of human-language expression inherent in context-sensitive languages, REBOL breaks through the barriers of computing complexity. The result: REBOL cuts application solution lengths from thousands of lines of code to hundreds. In fact, REBOL/Core is only 250 kilobytes in size, so it downloads in seconds, even on a 56Kbps modem. 

Sassenrath asserts, "Developers and the technologists have been shortchanged by existing languages and trapped in a quagmire of unproductive, bureaucratic complexity. All other programming and scripting languages are computer-centric languages. REBOL, on the other hand, is human-centric. The introduction of REBOL heralds a new era in which people control their computers, not the other way around." 

REBOL Increases the Productivity of Individuals and Corporations Alike

REBOL has the power to increase productivity not only for individuals, but also for enterprise application developers and Internet technologists. Rick Snyder, president of Avalon Investments, explains, "When I was the president of Gateway 2000, I saw firsthand how the complexity of building network-based applications seriously challenged both developers and corporations. That’s why we made REBOL Technologies one of Avalon’s first major venture capital investments. The REBOL language provides a revolutionary, simple way to model the exchange and flow of information in today’s multifaceted, distributed environments. REBOL truly speaks the language of the Internet, of developers, and of enterprise-wide communications." 

REBOL is an Internet-native language, directly handling primary Internet protocols such as e-mail, Web and FTP. No other bundled network or computer applications are needed, although REBOL’s open, customizable design means they can all be accommodated. Typical REBOL applications might include Web site building and maintenance, electronic commerce, file transfer, list management, newsgroup processing, E-mail filtering and processing, and Web searches. 

With the releases of alpha and beta versions of REBOL over the past ten months, the language has attracted a grassroots alliance of network administrators, educators, Webmasters and computer enthusiasts. REBOL Technologies will be encouraging the development of third-party applications built on the Core product. Many of these will be available directly through REBOL Technologies’ web site at no charge. The company will also produce commercial and professional upgrades, as well as distribution licenses, over the next few months. These will be accompanied by releases of REBOL/Core on Linux for SPARC and DEC Alpha, DEC Alpha NT, IRIX 6.2, BeOS x86, and BSDi.

A Language Grounded in Theory and Practice

REBOL is an acronym for Relative Expression-Based Object Language. While the ideas behind it have evolved over a period of twenty years, the REBOL language is itself the product of two years of specification, development, and testing. Led by Carl Sassenrath , his team of language and network architects built REBOL by drawing on their decades of experience in both academic theory and real-world practicality. The result is a language that REBOL Technologies believes will appeal equally to theoreticians and to Internet technologists. 

Prior to founding REBOL Technologies, Carl Sassenrath's professional experience spanned eighteen years in operating systems, computer languages, multimedia systems, and management. While a manager at Commodore Amiga in the mid-1980s, Mr. Sassenrath led the design and implementation of the highly acclaimed Amiga multitasking operating system. As the president of Pantaray, Inc. in the early 90s, he headed the development of several multimedia software products, including television set-top boxes, CD-ROM based computers, programming languages, content authoring systems, and digital video tools. His background also includes management and engineering positions at Apple Computer and Hewlett-Packard.

About REBOL Technologies

REBOL Technologies was incorporated by Carl Sassenrath in March 1998. Based in Ukiah, Calif., the company develops, markets, licenses and supports REBOL, a network messaging language that represents an entirely new class of languages, with capabilities well beyond those of anachronistic programming and scripting languages. REBOL’s mission is to usher in a new era of productivity through the development and distribution of a paradigm-shattering language that reintroduces human factors and customizability into application development and computing. The latest version of REBOL/Core is always available for free download at www.rebol.com.