REBOL For Dummies [Paperback]

Ralph Roberts (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0764507451 | ISBN-13: 978-0764507458 | Publication Date: September 1, 2000

With REBOL just about anybody can create cool-looking Web pages that run on virtually any platform. Unlike other scripting languages—like Perl, for instance—REBOL is about as close to plain English as a programming language could possibly be, and it directly handles e-mail, Web, FTP, NNTP and every other protocol, without the need for extra libraries or modules. REBOL isn’t hard to learn, but it does pack a slew of details that you’ll need to wrestle into shape while building your Web pages. Which is where REBOL For Dummies comes in.

Your complete guide to building powerful applications for all popular Internet protocols, this friendly guide helps you get your message across using REBOL. Author Ralph Roberts offers clear explanations and dozens of practical, skill-building examples that help you quickly master what you need to know to:

• Write scripts that run on 37 different platforms!
• Enable computers, servers, and PDAs to communicate with each o ther
• Build attractive Web documents with ease
• Synchronize database records
• Streamline your e-business activities

If you can turn on your computer and use a mouse, you can use REBOL to create powerful Web applications, and REBOL For Dummies shows you how. In plain English, it covers all the bases, including:

• Markup in general and REBOL markup in particular
• Creating, editing and structuring scripts
• Using REBOL elements and attributes to design and build simple documents
• Advanced coding techniques for building different types of complex Web pages
• How REBOL works with online resources to build and compile fast, flexible online documents
• Using REBOL to structure, build, save and load databases
• Creating REBOL CGI applications, getting REBOL to output HTML, filling out forms, and other advanced topics

The Bonus CD-ROM features:

• REBOL 2.3 for Windows, Amiga, Linux, UNIX, Mac, BeOS, and dozens of other platforms
• Sample scripts and examples from the book

If you can write a sentence and know the difference between a heading and a paragraph, you can build and publish your own Web documents with REBOL. Now find out how in REBOL For Dummies.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Are you ready for an easier, more powerful Perl? REBOL, which is pronounced "rebel," stands for the Relative-Expression Builder Object Language. This cross-platform, object-oriented scripting language offers many of the benefits of Perl, plus its own unique set of strengths, including superior support for working with common Internet protocols and the ability to perform "natural language parsing." Aimed at the beginner, REBOL for Dummies is a worthy addition to the well-known Dummies series, and it's a comprehensible introduction to this very promising language.

This text does a particularly good job of showing how simple REBOL programming can be. (Of course, unless you already know Perl, you won't appreciate how much simpler development can be with REBOL.) It offers a good tour of REBOL basics, from getting up and running (the language is supported on 37 platforms) to basic script development. More advanced readers will probably chafe at the constant authorial intrusions (and endless puns for chapter headings), though they are completely within the bounds of the Dummies format.

This book does a good job of discussing the unique strengths of REBOL, such as its support for extremely simple network programming, not to mention how easy it is to work with HTTP, FTP, and e-mail protocols. By treating data streams as ports, REBOL makes it a snap to work with files, regardless of whether they are local or remote. REBOL's support for objects (again, a good deal easier than object-oriented Perl, it would seem) also is introduced. Short sections about programming on Web servers to deliver up dynamic Web pages will help you get started using REBOL for Web applications. Sections on dialects and natural language parsing, which are available in REBOL, point out some of the unique strengths of the language.

While it's too early to tell whether REBOL will become a real rival to the popular Perl or JavaServer Pages (JSP), REBOL for Dummies is a useful introduction to this scripting language that should be approachable to anyone, regardless of programming experience. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered:

• Introduction and overview of REBOL
• Console I/O
• Style guide for REBOL code
• Logic and flow control
• REBOL functions and objects
• Common series in REBOL (searching and sorting)
• Basic data types and expressions
• Reading and writing files and directories
• REBOL ports
• Math basics
• Natural-language parsing and grammar rules
• Networking with FTP, HTTP, POP, and SMTP
• Text-file databases
• Working with e-mail
• REBOL server-side Web development (Web pages, server logs, CGI)
• REBOL dialects
• Tips for common REBOL programming tasks

About the Author

Ralph Roberts is a long-time computer and general interest writer, with such titles as Creative Computing, Compute's Computer Viruses, The Official Book of Leisure Suit Larry, and Genealogy via the Internet. He has over 80 books and 5,000 articles and short stories to his credit. His programming language titles include books on Turbo BASIC, Emacs, Unix, and Microsoft Publisher. Roberts has been using REBOL to write scripts on several platforms, and is truly a convert from any other type of scripting language. He describes these scenarios with just the perfect amount of humor and detailed explanations, making it enjoyable and understandable for the reader. What's more, Roberts was suggested by REBOL, who are keenly interested in seeing this book published and helping us to promote and sell it.

Product Details

• Paperback: 408 pages
• Publisher: For Dummies (September 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764507451
• ISBN-13: 978-0764507458
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,251,401 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Considering REBOL, read this book, December 4, 2000

By 

Water Monkey "Marc B." (Santa Clarita, Ca.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: REBOL For Dummies (Paperback)

REBOL is touting themselves as "the next generation of distributed communications". With it, a programmer should be able to develop for most platforms. Currently, REBOL supports 40 platforms by using 10 built-in Internet protocols. REBOL can exchange GUI content. Not only from machine to machine, but from users to machines.

This book shows you the basicis of what you can do with REBOL. It is a quick read, so you can make some development decisions without investing a great deal of research time. The book is easy to read and I preferred it over the typical "Dummies" book.

It is however, debateable as to whether you can get more from going to the REBOL website. If you are an experienced programmer the website may become your source. If you are a new programmer looking for "cutting edge" languages, but prefer to learn in a more casual manner, get this book.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars More than a dummies book, November 9, 2000

By 

Gary Overgard (Littleton, CO USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: REBOL For Dummies (Paperback)

This book provides the fastest way to start using Rebol effectively. Covers alot of ground with many examples and effective explanations. I think the author decided to do a 'dummies' book so that he could occasionally insert some humor, and do examples that build off earlier examples. It definitely covers more material than the typical dummies book, and will be useful for the software professional. One of Rebols main bragging rights is its effectiveness at forming dialects. This book only used 30 pages to cover the parsing/dialect topic, --I would have liked more on this topic. The book included a very good treatment of how to get a server up and running using Rebol. Highly recommended, good introduction to a language which may well replace perl.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Newbies & Gurus, November 9, 2000

By 

"[e-mail]" (Bardon, QLD Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: REBOL For Dummies (Paperback)

For those new to REBOL, this is an ideal book to learn with. A fast and easy read, you will be writing useful code in no time and having fun doing it. Used in conjunction to the REBOL/Core User's guide, it is a great way to hit the ground running.

If you've been using REBOL for a while this is a quick read, a great refresher and handy reference.