what's wrong with REBOL?

[Tim Lesher]

Jeff Epler <jepler at unpythonic.net> wrote in message news:<mailman.1062542045.14859.python-list at python.org>...
> On Tue, Sep 02, 2003 at 09:03:17PM +0000, Christopher Browne wrote:
> > "What's wrong" is that 'proprietary nature.'  If I write code in Perl,
> > Python, or Ruby, I can be certain that I won't get bitten because of
> > someone pulling the rug out from under them.  
> > 
> > I can't be certain in the same way of the perpetual availability of
> > REBOL.
> 
> Of course, it's also possible that it might become impossible to use
> "non-proprietary" software.

Yes, but any of the apocalyptic situations you mention could happen
equally well with proprietary software, and comparing the complexity
of portion X10 to that of porting Python (or a similarly-sized,
well-factored language) is ridiculous.

The gamut of things that would make you completely lose your
investment in the language is non-zero with open source languages like
Perl or Python, but it's definitely smaller than with proprietary ones
like REBOL.

On that note, I tried REBOL a few years ago, just before trying
Python.  I found it an amazing language, but I settled on Python for
exactly this reason.  Since then, I've found the Python community to
have grown significantly, while the REBOL community has not.  I don't
think that's a coincidence.

-- 
Tim Lesher
tim at lesher.ws