Well, it's here now, sort of. There's still no View (i.e. no graphics or GUI) and no networking, as this release is only for Unicode testing. The Linux version also came out. Both look like they share similar alpha bugs (no cursor operations, trouble with line feeds), so updates may be synced between both versions, coming close to simultaneously, at least until graphics goes back in.

Oh, the Linux version looks just the same as in the above screenshot, although the window border is not nearly as pretty.

/me goes hiding.

After carefully inspecting the downloads section, I couldn't find the source for the PAN-IMAGE VID style. I'm very sorry for this blunder. It's available there now.

I can't believe I missed these tutorials! But between the frantic 12-14 hour a day coding sessions I have these days to meet strict deadlines, I miss a lot of things, including the piece and quiet to think properly about some code to do it correctly.

I haven't run through them yet, but if you are a beginner and want to hear and see your tutorials about REBOL rather than reading about them, well, here's a good start. Many thanks to Nick Antonaccio for creating them. Enjoy!

How does one use REBOL/Services (also known as R/S, LNS, RebServices)? The docs are not yet finished, as R/S is not finished, so it can be hard to judge for yourself how well it works.

This post will try to explain in a quick fashion how to get R/S working. Read More...

First some status updates on REBOL/View for MacOSX:

REBOL/View now works on MacOSX Leopard. There are at least two font problems under MacOSX Leopard. One font problem is what causes REBOL/View 1.3 to crash under Leopard. The other is what causes fonts not to be read under Leopard.

Read More...

REBOL 3's next VID 3 prototype now supports skins. For a test three different skins were made by Gabriele Santilli, where the last two are derivatives of the first. These skins demonstrate the scalability of the user interface:

Click read more for more screenshots and source code.

Read More...

A new release of REBOL/Core for intel mac was published today. You can read more about it here.

Here are some cheap benchmarks on MacOSX Leopard on a 2 Ghz Santa Rosa Macbook with 4 GB RAM and Leopard on a 1.25 Ghz G4 PPC Mac Mini with 1 GB RAM:

>> t: now/precise repeat i 10000000 [set 'a true] difference now/precise t  

== 0:00:13.598378 ; PPC G4

== 0:00:06.310057 ; Rosetta

== 0:00:02.427662 ; Intel

Inserting 1 into a block 100000 times (because you know, we do that all the time):

>> a: make block! []

>> t: now/precise repeat i 100000 [insert a 1] difference now/precise t   

== 0:05:57.933257 ; PPC G4 (wow!)

== 0:00:22.498992 ; Rosetta

== 0:00:06.623004 ; Intel

Looks like I struck a nerve with the G4 here. I ran the test twice to make sure it wasn't erratic or that the machine was swapping, causing the test to slow down, but I got 0:06:11.605227 on the second run. Interesting. If you get anything else with a similarly specced machine, sound off in the comments.

The console benchmark test from rebol.org:

PPC G4:

>> do http://www.rebol.com/speed.r

connecting to: www.rebol.com

Script: "REBOL Quick and Dirty Speed Test" (none)

Running...

........................................................................



Console:   0:00:04.612143 - 109 KC/S

Processor: 0:00:01.722944 - 501 RHz (REBOL-Hertz)

Memory:    0:00:03.01248 - 15 MB/S

Disk/File: 0:00:02.041244 - 14 MB/S

I knew the terminal under MacOSX Leopard was never going to be a speed demon with a G4 mini, but 14 times slower console output than Intel native?

Rosetta:

>> do http://www.rebol.com/speed.r

connecting to: www.rebol.com

Script: "REBOL Quick and Dirty Speed Test" (none)

Running...

........................................................................



Console:   0:00:00.665528 - 760 KC/S

Processor: 0:00:00.872422 - 990 RHz (REBOL-Hertz)

Memory:    0:00:02.083128 - 22 MB/S

Disk/File: 0:00:00.62334 - 48 MB/S

Now the console might be off here, since it's Intel native, which makes it gets an automatic speed boost here, so the comparison in that respect might not be fair.

Intel:

>> do http://www.rebol.com/speed.r

connecting to: www.rebol.com

Script: "REBOL Quick and Dirty Speed Test" (none)

Running...

........................................................................



Console:   0:00:00.355696 - 1423 KC/S

Processor: 0:00:00.30406 - 2841 RHz (REBOL-Hertz)

Memory:    0:00:00.567992 - 83 MB/S

Disk/File: 0:00:00.42605 - 71 MB/S

That's more like it!

I'm impressed, both that the Intel version is much faster, but Rosetta, the PPC emulation is not too bad either, as it easily outruns my trusty old G4, sometimes by up to 50 times. Looks like Steve Jobs made the right choice when switching to Intel, or there are some things left to optimize for the PPC version.

Unfortunately we can't do any graphics tests, as this only is a port of REBOL/Core. REBOL/View does not yet work on clean installs of OSX Leopard due to font problems which causes a crash and REBOL/View never starts. As some time has been scheduled for working on a REBOL 2.7.6 release this week, REBOL Technologies will be working to fix this problem.