The Internet Messaging LanguageTM
	HOME COMPANY   Our Mission   News Events   Backgrounder   Executive Bios   To Contact Us INTRODUCTION   What Users Say   In a Nutshell   REBOL Features   REBOL with a Cause   What is Messaging?   REBOL in Ten Steps DOWNLOAD LIBRARY   Script Library   User's Library SUPPORT   How-To   Guides   Feedback   FAQ JOBS		REBOL 2.1 Feature Overview Machine and System Independent Programs run on 30+ platforms without modification (see diagram). Scripts that you create on your PC will run on your dentist's Macintosh, mother's Linux, swami's Sun Solaris, and other platforms. Plus, we expect to be expanding by a few new platforms each week. Highly Integrated Networking Comes with several common Internet protocols ready to go. Included are HTTP, FTP, SMTP, POP, SMTP, NNTP, Finger, and Daytime. We'll be providing more, or you can roll your own with our TCP features. Our protocol source code is provided. Clean & Simple Syntax It is intended to be read by ordinary humans. The language is consistent and free from unnecessary punctuation. It's not exactly English, but it doesn't look like your terminal broke and spewed random characters (like other languages out there.) Domain Specific Dialecting The future is dialecting. It provides you with the leverage and productivity by expressing your solution with a domain specific language, rather than needing a different language for everything. If you're a doctor, you'll want to express your ideas in medical terms, not in various complex system programming languages. Rich Set of Built-in Datatypes They are all in one compact package: money, times, dates, numbers, strings, words, tags, logic, lists, hashes, tuples, objects and many other datatypes. No other REBOL modules or libraries are required for most scripts. This eliminates the "run anywhere but you don't have everything you need" syndrome, and provides a high level of consistency between all platforms. Robust, Multi-level Security Several levels of operational security are built-in. The default is "safe" mode, where absolutely no files can be written to or deleted from your system, nor can information be sent out over the Internet, without your permission. You can adjust the security to your level of comfort and the trust you place in the script you are running. Compression/Decompression Standard You can compress and decompress text and binary files directly from the language, providing you with greater efficiency in data transfer. It's built in. Small Program Footprint Download REBOL from the net... typically it will take less time than viewing a web site. On most platforms the program is less than 200 KB in size... but, don't underestimate it! Every one of those bytes is packed with substantial power. Installation Not Required Just decompress (unzip) the distribution file into a directory and run it. Regardless of operating system, no installation is required. To remove or replace it, just delete the files. Advanced Technical Features Parser dialect provides advanced pattern matching (all the power of, but much easier to use than, traditional regular-expressions) Documentation embedding for functions and scripts. Highly reflective and is its own meta language Takes advantage of a symbolic and polymorphic design Refinement paths provides generic namespace navigation Active scoping allows definition-based binding on demand Prototype-based objects allow cloning, extending, and one-of-a-kind creation. Exception handling for error recovery Built-in function help for all words (even user defined words) Consistent model of auto-expanding arrays (series) for lists, strings, binary, etc. Automatic storage management for simpler scripting

A Platform-Independent Language for Practical Internet Solutions

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