Rebol Projects

Here's a list of current projects in the mind of Carl Sassenrath, Chief Rebol. Carl has limited time to spend on these projects and greatly appreciates any help he can get. If you can help, click on the link associated with specific projects.

Modernize the Rebol.com Website

Can you help with this web-site project?

Goals:

• Redesign the look and feel of the site
  This includes the navigation bar, backgrounds, styles, layout, and even a few scripts. A lot of help is needed with this. Carl's CSS ability is ancient.
• Update the marketing pitch
  Rebol is 20 years old now. Many of its innovative ideas have been copied to other languages or technologies (e.g. JSON). Yet... much of Rebol is still unique in the programming world. We need to add a bit of an attitude: Rebol isn't for everyone. Programmers that want to continue wasting their time and energy should stick with what they know.
• Revise the CSS
  Make it render well on mobile devices like phones and tablets. However, as always, keep it simple and easy to maintain (not layers of complex CSS.)
• Javascript a few things
  Example: add a simple option to view example code in reverse video (light text on dark backgrounds). Guru programmers view and edit code that way. Why? It significantly cuts visual glare. A good reason.
• Remove pages that are obsolete, old-fashioned, or redundant.
  There are a number of these. We've kept them around because they still get hits, but it's time to purge them.
• Publish two fresh new introductions
  There are two versions of this: one for programmers and one for non-programmers. Carl's been brain-storming on this in his mind for several years and has some definite directions in mind.

Build Rebol on the Cloud

Can you help with this build project?

Goals:

• Build on the cloud
  Setup one or more cloud servers to rebuild Rebol distributions as needed. The list follows.
• Build for Apple OSX
  We're hoping there's a way to do this on the cloud. If you know how, please let us know. If it's not possible, let us know that also.
• Build for Windows
  Although we don't use Windows we know many users still do. The trick is how to setup a Windows build target on a cloud server. We need some help with this.
• Build for Linux desktop/servers
  This is pretty easy. Carl knows how.
• Build for Linux embedded (ARM)
  This is also pretty easy.
• Build for other OS targets
  We've had many build targets over the years, and a few may still be in use. Which ones should we still build? Perhaps BSD variants? What else?
• Selected source files on Git
  Rebol 3 is already on Github, but Rebol 2 is not. It may be possible to put selected portions of Rebol 2 on a git server. Is this worthwhile?
• Automated builds
  If it makes sense, we'd setup automated builds as changes occur.

Manage Rebol.org Website

Can you help update Rebol.org?

Goals:

• New rebol.org team
  This site was established many years ago as a community archive of Rebol scripts. Several members of the community put out the effort to build it, but it has fallen into neglect. We need skilled members of the community to take it over again.
• Modernize rebol.org
  Similar to Rebol.com it needs a modern look, better CSS, jazzed-up layout, those kinds of things.
• Add new scripts, remove poor ones
  We could use a few new scripts here to help users, and also pull off any scripts that are of poor quality (badly written or broken).
• Maybe add Javascript
  If we think it could improve the site, add some Javascripts to make it work better.
• Move it to new server
  This is optional, but it could be moved to a cloud server to improve performance and reduce the cost. (It is sponsored by Rebol Technologies.)