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World: r3wp

[Syllable] The free desktop and server operating system family

Kaj
6-Sep-2010
[2190]
Yes, more than 99% of their code is the same, so almost any work 
on Server is also work on Desktop
Pekr
6-Sep-2010
[2191]
I also hope that some REBOL oldtimers will give R3 a try. It is nice 
that there is at least one OS (Syllable), who openly mentions REBOL 
to the user-base. Maybe similar situation could be done for AmigaOS 
and/or Haiku.
ddharing
6-Sep-2010
[2192x2]
Kaj, what do you mean by your statement, "For R3, yes, but after 
he has willingly destroyed it for R2"?
Are you in close contact still with Kristian? Is he just taking a 
rest? Do you know when he's coming back?
Kaj
6-Sep-2010
[2194x2]
We haven't heard from him, so we're not sure how he is, but at last 
contact he was doing OK
You'd have to ask RT about the precise considerations of the past 
half decade, but piecing the puzzle together, they seem to have had 
a conviction that R2 would stand in the way of R3 adoption
ddharing
6-Sep-2010
[2196]
I thought that the release of 2.7.7 earlier this year and the back-porting 
of some R3 functions was an encouraging sign for us R2 developers.
Kaj
7-Sep-2010
[2197x2]
Yes, R2 has sort of been restarted. But that's now that R3 is finally 
starting to work. If R2 was going to be revived, it should never 
have been left to languish
Similar to R2 itself, there's not much REBOL community left. It will 
be tough to restore trust
Kaj
13-Sep-2010
[2199]
David, we had a nice conference. Everything was filmed, but it always 
takes the organiser a long time to edit the videos, so I don't know 
when they will be published
ddharing
13-Sep-2010
[2200]
I'm not very familiar with the ROX Desktop. You mentioned earlier 
that you had X running on Syllable Server. Does that mean it will 
be possible to run REBOL/View on Syllable Server?
Kaj
13-Sep-2010
[2201x2]
Yes, typing into it right now (AltME) :-)
I demoed AltME on the conference and my CMS running in View, generating 
web exports of AltME
ddharing
13-Sep-2010
[2203]
Cool!
Kaj
13-Sep-2010
[2204]
That was one of my major motivations for producing an extra Linux 
system
ddharing
13-Sep-2010
[2205]
Is the development version available for download? I just checked 
the website and only see a development release for 0.4
Kaj
13-Sep-2010
[2206]
Not publicly, as it doesn't have release quality yet, but you can 
contact me privately here
ddharing
13-Sep-2010
[2207]
OK.. My project requirements changed last week. For the project I 
mentioned earlier, I was going to have an embedded Linux server and 
then use throw-away Dell machines running Windows for REBOL/View 
nodes. Now the customer wants all embedded Linux with touch screens. 
I'm currently developing on Syllable Server and have to look at another 
distro to run X. I'm wondering out loud how stable your development 
release is for running nothing but a single REBOL/View application. 
It's for a material handling application in a manufacturing environment.
Kaj
13-Sep-2010
[2208x9]
Ah, the joy of changing IT requirements :-)
It works quite well as long as you don't try to install extra software
As I told before, I'm installing X and other stuff from GoboLInux 
packages, and ROX from ZeroInstall packages. The packages that I 
include in the distro are configured and somewhat tested. Not all 
functionality works, but they're fairly alright
Only when you try to install more software you're on your own, because 
there are often more missing configurations, or conflicts between 
binary packages
The most annoying thing about the default configuration is that drag 
and drop works between some apps, but not others. Then it crashes 
the desktop. ROX will detect that and nicely restart, but you can't 
call it stable
Further, I'm running under the root account, because X needs to be 
started as root. Switching to another account after that requires 
a login manager, but I haven't integrated one yet
So there's no system security at the moment. On the other hand, if 
the goal is an appliance running one application, it can be very 
nice to leave out parts of the desktop to make it run just that one 
app
All my development is directed towards this: running Syllable on 
both clients and servers, with REBOL on top, nicely integrated
I've been working towards getting Pacman packages working, from ArchLinux, 
to see if that works better for the moment being. That's the next 
development goal
ddharing
20-Sep-2010
[2217]
Kai, is there a specific design reason that you prefer ReiserFS over 
Ext3 for Syllable Server?
Kaj
20-Sep-2010
[2218x2]
Yes, ReiserFS is designed as the storage layer for a database system. 
In particular, it was designed and optimised to be very good at large 
numbers of small files, assuming they will be records in a database. 
This is exactly what we tend to do in native REBOL databases
Unfortunately, Hans Reiser has gotten himself life in jail, so the 
higher level database is unlikely to ever be created. But it's still 
good as a file system
Graham
20-Sep-2010
[2220x2]
No computers in jail?
It's not very pretty http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Reiser
Maxim
20-Sep-2010
[2222]
hehehe.. I was just there... yeah... grim.
Graham
20-Sep-2010
[2223]
this is a more colourful history http://encyclopediadramatica.com/Hans_Reiser
Janko
20-Sep-2010
[2224]
Kaj: yes that is exactly why I was looking at ReiserFS too. Why build 
storage systems on top of FileSystems if FileSystem could be the 
storage system (and probably more optiomal if it'
Kaj
21-Sep-2010
[2225]
Exactly. He got some things right...
Pekr
21-Sep-2010
[2226]
ddharing - my friend works for Pickering. Not much of a know company 
here in CZ, but rather important development/production company for 
special hw (they now e.g. got some contract by Agilent). He built 
their production facility around really old terminals (300 MHz Genode 
based Compaq T2/ a 5USD) they bought on e-bay or so. Those terminals 
have something like 24MB of RAM, so no chance of browser running 
there. They use REBOL/View system there. As there is little of RAM/storage, 
he redirected swap file to the server :-)
Kaj
21-Sep-2010
[2227]
Are they running Windows 95 or something?
ddharing
21-Sep-2010
[2228]
Pekr, interesting story. That's really minimal hardware. What kind 
of REBOL/View application was it?
Graham
21-Sep-2010
[2229]
Probably run windows CE
Pekr
22-Sep-2010
[2230]
They run Linux of-course. Could you see Windows 95 with remote swap 
file? Maybe so, but I never tried that :-) They use them as production 
line terminals - various stages of production, recording info, storing 
into mySQL. The app was initially simple, now it is not simple anymore 
:-) I always said my friend is crazy. I suggested python, perl, etc. 
to him, to be more safe, but he did like REBOL, its size, just-on-file 
aspect, and now the system might be rolled to UK based facility :-)
Maxim
22-Sep-2010
[2231]
why use other languages?  My personnal observation is that software 
running REBOL is much more stable than other scripted languages. 
 cause you have more time to debug and less bugs to begin with.
Kaj
22-Sep-2010
[2232]
Must be a very old or overloaded Linux then, to run View on 24 MB
Kaj
23-Sep-2010
[2233x4]
Syllable Desktop has the first article of a series of I think two 
in PCLinuxOS magazine:
http://pclosmag.com
Especially for Graham, it has a screenshot tour of installing the 
operating system ;-)
http://pclosmag.com/html/Issues/201009/page09.html
ddharing
24-Sep-2010
[2237]
Kaj, do you have a favorite Live CD Linux that you use to install 
Syllable Server. I've been using Puppy Linux, but it doesn't have 
XZ-Utils or Reiser filesystem support in the default distribution.
Kaj
24-Sep-2010
[2238x2]
I use TinyME, but it currently doesn't have a download, and the previous 
stable release of Wolvix, but it currently doesn't have a stable 
release and the new versions are much bigger
Older distros are unlikely to have XZ-Utils, so I have an extra BZ2 
version of the Syllable Server distro. Advantage if you're the distro 
author :-)