World: r3wp

almost as much as SCO.

If RT will listen to what I say, I can lead them thru :-)

Don't be fooled because the few of us here are the last people remaining

remaining? were there ever more people?

I have strong faith in what I say and usually I am right, even if 
sometimes my suggestions might sound as too strict.

but there is even less ppl. And I can also notice the interest is 
withering.

Where are ppl like - Steve Shireman, Doc, Cyphre, Gabriele, Ladislav? 
Working privately, even for REBOL related business, but they are 
not here. Well, Gabriele is here often, others are not. Volker, Anton?

I would let it wither. I think people will return, once R3 comes 
out.

if a company produces something interesting, people will come, even 
if they've left it before. that's my theory.

I would like to believe it. I really hope it is just like ppl are 
doing other things, and once R3 is released, they suddenly come up 
from various holes and that REBOL will once again become vital point 
of interest ... but I am scared that the momentum is vanishing ...

Amiga Inc. generated quite a lot of interest before the first release 
of AmigaAnywhere, because of the Tao Group technology. The technology 
was interesting, but it was an "R2"; closed and hard to develop for, 
sparse documentation, etc. but impressive to look at. Today they 
have squandered their opportunity window, because their technology 
was really depending on such a window. But if they produce something 
new, something incredible, of course I'd be interested, and so will 
many other people.

it's the same thing with REBOL. "oh, I liked the language a lot, 
but I couldn't do XYZ." well, if you can do XYZ now, maybe you'll 
be interested again. I think most people who have left REBOL saw 
it as something with great potential and great fun to use. They won't 
forget that. It'll be easy to regain momentum with these people.

Henrik; I have to disagree again.  I had a friend that saved up for 
years to buy a really nice BMW motorcycle.  He was so excited.  Then 
come delivery day he was told he had to wait.  For two months he 
was told "maybe tomorrow".  Then when it was delivered and I helped 
him load it on my truck, I could see in his eyes that he just didn't 
care anymore.  He road that bike like it was something to be tolerated, 
not enjoyed.

Amiga Inc. will never do such a thing any more. I'm not exactly sure 
what its current purpose is, but it has one and it's not technology 
development

Motorcycles are not software.

It was the disappointment of "maybe tomorrow" for too many days. 
 It just sucked all the joy out of the experience for him...something 
that he never got back.

People come back in droves all the time. Look at Apple how they lost 
themselves in the 90's and now are back again, more popular than 
ever. A Danish IT company here was widely criticized for extremely 
poor customer support and lost a lot of customers. They turned around 
and people came back.

Look at Linux. Maybe you won't install Ubuntu as your main desktop 
this time around, but maybe in a year. It's lurking in the background 
and you'll make the jump to it when you want to.

I'm not sure if the REBOL community has contracted, but I suspect 
so. When I joined five years ago, there was a lot of activity, but 
it has mostly gone downhill since then

There' s no publicity any more, no books for example. And it's a 
different world now: open source languages have taken over

it doesn't matter in the long run.

That's my point: REBOL is in grave danger of not mattering in the 
long run

it never really mattered in the first place, so what's to lose?

I can't find myself in such a defaitistic outlook. REBOL is a great, 
fundamental advancement in technology that would be awful to loose. 
Like that BMW

the only time I would really worry, would be if Carl just stopped 
developing R3. that would be a terrible thing, but that would be 
the only risk of losing it. it won't get cut by a clueless executive 
or if there is no money (because there appearently is).

Henrik;  What?  Never mattered?  BooHiss  :)  It's one of the greatest 
things to hit the computing field...like ever.  Popularity be damned. 
 It still matters.  Like the other great discoveries.  Forth, SNOBOL, 
Lisp.  GNU/Linux.

matters to us in here, of course, but is not even a blip on the radar 
anywhere, never was. perhaps in that, we have the greatest strength. 
like the stealth bomber going to war. :-)

Right. And GNU/Linux doesn't even belong in that list. RT does not 
exist in a vacuum, and Carl is not an island. His funding is coming 
from somewhere, and he has a responsibility over it, and a dependency

now if REBOL was developed by Commodore, it would have been truly 
lost in a patent/license/bankrupcy issue.

and that would have been really sad. :-)

True, things can always be worse. Should that be our expectation 
in life?

my point is that I think products developed by small companies are 
harder to destroy through incompetence than products developed by 
big ones and are covered in patents and boneheaded executives.

I added Linux as an after thought...something that matters but doesn't 
really have the mainstream in tow  ...yet.  Like most worthwhile 
things, the mainstream doesn't really seem to have a clue but carries 
an immense momentum, for good or ill ... usually ill but everyone 
goes home paid ... paid just enough to need to stay in the mainstream 
and quietly desire something better.  :)

OK. :-) I made that note because I just built one :-)

We will release Syllable Server this weekend, and you can quote me 
on that ;-)

5

Go Kaj Go!  :)

I'm just leaning back. It's done :-)

I also think what RT has done is very divisive.

This is a small community ... and to break it into two with the haves 
and have nots is very bad.

We could tolerate a few weeks ... but 6 months??  That's really pushing 
it.

the have nots feel like second class citizens and move on ...

I'm saying sometime early 2008. Carl isn't. It may be sooner. It 
depends on what he wants to release.

for those of us who develop apps using the sdk .. I'm not expecting 
anything until end of 2008

Now that's depressing... Ithink that Pekr's solution makes a lot 
of  sense: Use R2-Core's feature set as a first beta goal so that 
people can start using R3 for new projects without having to recode 
later. I do not know how practical or possible that would be interms 
of development though.

note about asking me to join: it's not my decision who joins and 
who does not. so you are free to ask but i need to get the ok to 
add more people. as i said, i was for just releasing to the people 
here no matter what the status. you can either fix the feature list, 
or fix the date, you can't fix both. my assumption was that for r3, 
we had fixed the date, and not the feature list (except for a couple 
things we were ok to move the date for). don't blame me if it wasn't 
released in august.

petr, if it's Core only as you say, what would be different from 
the current status of R3? just bug fixes? so why should people here 
wait for xmas for? i really don't understand. if we want release 
early, forget features, just release what you have and make it clear 
that there is no support. if you want a final product you can use 
in production, just wait until all bugs are fixed and everything 
is settled on, which could be three months or three years depending 
on what the community asks for and which bugs they find.

Gabriele - no, no bug fixes only - R3 alpha has one and only scheme 
- http - where is pop, ftp, smtp?

So, from the practical core like usability, it is missing some very 
important things. So my suggestion was - finish schemes, update/improve 
dll, describe embeddability and porting, if time permits, add own 
console and rebservices (not necessarily)

And R3/Core 3.1 - add rebcode as a base. Ppl already found its uses. 
IMO it was already usefull and it is a pity it was later excluded 
from the Core ...

Gabriele - what you propose is still the same song - no product development 
strategy. Read also Greggs comments - noone knows what should do 
what, when some feature comes etc.