REBOL Technologies

REBOL/Coop - The First REBOL Service

Carl Sassenrath, CTO
REBOL Technologies
29-Mar-2005 0:45 GMT
Article #0146
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As REBOL/Services development nears its first release, I've begun thinking more about what types of services I would like to see go online first. At the top of my list is a service I call the REBOL/Coop. Here's the idea...

The purpose of the REBOL/Coop is to build a cooperative exchange for functions, features, and documents. The easiest way to imagine the Coop is to think of something like the Source Forge, but implemented on the X Internet via REBOL/Services.

The Coop will be a project-driven service that lets developers:

  • Easily view the status and activities of all projects
  • Post requests for "wanted" features or functions
  • Upload and modify source code or documentation
  • Automate source code archiving, including history and versions
  • Post comments and have discussions about projects
  • Add test code suites to source projects
  • Provide a centralized location for translations
  • Post top-level announcements related to projects
  • Manage what changes get approved and included in projects

As an example, and to show my commitment to this approach, the code that implements REBOL/Services will be one of the first projects that is added to the Coop. Other REBOL related source code will follow, including even various C modules that are internal to REBOL, such as the Console window. This is also how we intend to build new REBOL modules such as the DIFF function, Unicode support, the AGG draw interface, VID styles, the REBOL/View desktop, and much more. In fact, the Coop's code itself will reside there.

The X-Internet approach of the Coop will allow users to easily synchronize on changes that occur, download the latest projects, and get updates with ease. The REBOL/Coop will also mirror project details on a web interface. This feature allows information like the project's description, status, team, and selected discussions to be indexed by the web search engines, giving the project greater visibility in the world of computing.

Normally, a system of this magnitude would require a large development effort, but because it's built with REBOL/Services, I do not expect the first release to take more than a few days to implement.

Note: The licensing of published code will be setup on a per-project basis, so it will be up to the primary authors (owners) of the code to decide what license best fits their desires. It is expected that projects authored by REBOL Technology will use our new REBOL license (a variant of BSD licensing, TBR soon).

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