AltME: Announce

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Bo
Added three more chapters to the Rebol 3 tutorial at  http://video.respectech.com:8080/tutorial/r3/index.r3 bringing the total to 13 chapters. Here's the current index:
R3 Home
R3 Introduction
R3 Words
R3 Help
R3 Function Help
R3 Blocks
R3 More Blocks
R3 Text Strings
R3 Nesting Functions
R3 Objects
R3 Intro to Parse
R3 Parse and Blocks
R3 Advanced Parse
Thanks to Brett Handley and John Kenyon for their permission to incorporate their excellent PARSE tutorial.
What topics do you think need to be covered next?
DocKimbel

Bo
Not specifically Rebol/Red related, but I wanted to let you all know that ameriDroid.com is now an official distributor for Banana Pi, Banana Pro, and Raspberry Pi 2, in addition to exclusive N. American distributor for Hardkernel/ODROID. We also carry a full line of accessories and peripherals. I hope you give us a chance if you need any of the systems that we now carry!
http://ameridroid.com

Kaj
I didn't have time to announce it, but I upgraded Red on Try REBOL to version 0.5.4 just after the release.
Also, Try REBOL is now available encrypted over HTTPS:
https://try.rebol.nl

Ashley
Munge 1.1.0
    Refactored main munge function
        removed /flip refinement
        removed %.xml, %.xlsx and none! as valid /save targets
        added /group 'avg
        removed implied Excel column names
        /update can reference column names without /where (e.g. munge/update blk 2 ['c1 [c2 * 2]])
        split /merge off into a separate function
        split rowid referencing off into separate functions (pick-cell, poke-cell, copy-row, remove-row)
        big speed improvements (about 40%-60% faster for most /where and/or /part operations)
    Added a lot of support functions
    No longer redefine 'select (new select-skip function added)
    No longer redefine 'unique (new unique-skip function added)
    No longer redefine 'call for R3 Alpha (use R2 or Atronix R3 instead)
Updated documentation available here:
- http://dobeash.com/Munge/munge.html
- http://dobeash.com/Munge/support.html

Arnold

Bo
A new single board computer to run Rebol3 or Red on - ODROID-XU4:
http://ameridroid.com/products/odroid-xu4
Did I do OK on the intro video? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtqfC9v0xB0&feature=youtu.be

AdrianS
From BrianD (HostileFork):
Ren/C
Ren/C is an interim fork of the open sourced Rebol codebase. It has many goals:
    To create a library form of the interpreter, which is focused on providing the full spectrum of Rebol's internals to other projects. This is to open up possibilities for linking to new IDEs, debuggers, and consoles (such as Ren Garden). It will also be the basis for language bindings like Ren/C++.
    To un-fork the divergence between the community build of Rebol based on the 12-Dec-2012 open-sourced code and the codebase built on pre-open-source code at Saphirion, later maintained by Atronix Engineering.
    To accelerate the process by which consensus features and fixes are integrated into the language. Though debates continue over features in Rebol and Red Chat, many changes are ready and agreed upon--some submitted as patches. Yet they haven't had a focal location where they can be launched and people get new builds.
    To integrate the test suite into the build, and make the bar obvious that contributions must meet by keeping it at zero errors. The Valgrind and Address Sanitizer tools are being integrated into the build and test process, with modifications to the code to prevent masking bugs.
    To provide an option for stable open-source bootstrapping to be used by the Red Language, which is currently bootstrapped from closed-source Rebol2. (Red's roadmap goal is to move directly to a self-hosting state from the Rebol2 codebase. This may be a poorer option than moving to an improved Rebol3 as an interim step.)
Methodology
The Atronix/Saphirion build diverged from Rebol at a point in time prior to its release as an Apache-licensed open-source project. Their build had a graphical user interface and several other additional features, but was only available for Windows and Linux.
Ren/C split out a "Core" build from the Atronix/Saphirion branch, which runs as a console process and does not require GUI support. It was then audited to build under strict ANSI C89, C99, and C11. It also added the option to build as strict ISO C++98, C++11, and C++14. The goal is to take advantage of stronger type-checking and metaprogramming, while still retaining the ability to do a complete build on very old compilers when __cplusplus is not defined.
Consequently, Ren/C brings all the non-GUI features added by Atronix and Saphirion to core builds for other systems (Mac 32-bit and 64-bit, HaikuOS, Raspberry Pi, etc.) It also allows users who are not interested in the GUI to use lighter builds on Windows and Linux.
Besides building under these ranges of languages, Ren/C can do so under both GCC and Clang with zero warnings (with as strict warnings as reasonable). Significant changes are needed to do this, which are being given heavy thought on how to make things simpler, clearer, and better-checked. Across the board the code is more readable than what came in, with notable simplifications and improved checks.
(Note: Ultimately the goal is that Ren/C will not be something Rebol end-users will be aware of, but a library facing those building software that links to the evaluator. Hence systems like Rebol and Ren Garden would be branded as interfaces and consoles using the core interpreter, and Ren/C would contain no 'main.c'. Getting to that point will take a while, and in the meantime Ren/C produces a traditional Rebol executable as part of its build process.)
Features
New features available in Ren/C's console builds vs. the open-sourced Rebol codebase of 12-Dec-2012 are:
    HTTPS support as a protocol written in Rebol code, empowered by underlying cryptography libraries incorporated the C code.
    An implementation of LIBRARY!, which allows Rebol to load a DLL or shared library and then directly call functions in it. This is accomplished with the "FFI" (Foreign Function Interface) and new data types for representing C-level constructs like ROUTINE! and STRUCT!.
    Note: Building Ren/C with FFI currently requires additional steps or package, installation, as the FFI library has not been extracted into code following Rebol's build process.
    CALL with /INPUT /OUTPUT /ERROR
    UDP Network Scheme
    Ability to make use of native ("__builtin") 64-bit math, if it is available
(Additionally there is serial port support on Linux and Windows.)
Platforms
As of 16-Jul-2015, Ren/C has been verified as reaching the goal of building across the standards-compliant spectrum of C or C++ without warnings on these desktop platforms:
    Linux 32-bit, libcc 2.11 (OS_ID=0.3.04)
    Linux 64-bit (OS_ID=0.4.40)
    Windows 32-bit (OS_ID=0.3.01)
    Windows 64-bit (OS_ID=0.3.02)
    OS/X 32-bit (OS_ID=0.2.05)
    OS/X 64-bit (OS_ID=0.2.40)
It has additionally been built for:
    ARM Linux on Raspberry Pi (OS_ID=0.4.21)
    OS/X PowerPC (OS_ID=0.2.04)
    HaikuOS (OS_ID=0.5.75)
    SyllableOS Desktop(OS_ID=0.14.01)
https://github.com/metaeducation/ren-c
http://i.stack.imgur.com/j0tw2.png

Ladislav
https://github.com/saphirion/include - documentation update to describe how to revert the "Choose default program..." action effect

Geomol
New version of The World Programming Language is out. This is a major alpha release with lots of new stuff.
Check group #World here in REBOL4 @ AltME.

Bo
(After much hair pulling and gnashing of teeth...) R3-View is now available for Raspberry Pi and Pi 2 at video.respectech.com:8080/a.com/r3-view
Feel free to move the binary over to rebolsource.net or other locations.
Thanks to Shixin Zeng for great support in getting it to build!

Arnold
I created the game of Xiangqi in Red 0.5.4 https://github.com/iArnold/Xiangqi
Thanks to all that made this possible.

NickA
I made a video demonstrating how to use the jsLinb library and Sigma Visual Builder to quickly create UIs which connect with Rebol CGI server apps:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yrDNluQSwo
The tools above are an older precursor to CrossUI, but I like them because they're free and open source, really light weight, and not only the created apps, but also the entire development system run virtually anywhere - even IE6, Firefox 1.5, and in just about any mobile browser.  It's really simple to learn to use, and extremely productive, at least for the needs I've encountered.  You can package the GUIs for mobile platforms using Phonegap build (and desktop with Node Webkit - although I don't see as likely a need for that).  You can run the visual builder from any Apache install on any OS - I've done it locally on Windows, on Android with KSWeb server, on shared hosting Lunarpages accounts (which I've been able to use even on the old Android phone).  It's nice to be able to quickly and easily create full featured front ends on any device, which run on any device, and which connect easily with Rebol server scripts that run just about anywhere too, including shared hosting.  The whole system is really simple to use, and exhaustively documented.
The video is 1.3 hours long - very sorry for the length - I did it to prepare for making a written tutorial which will be more succinct.  All the files used in the video are here:    
    
http://re-bol.com/jsLinb-sigma-tutorial.zip
    
(Front end JS and Rebol CGI scripts, Rebol interpreter, jsLinb/Sigma builder distribution, Windows Uniserver distribution, etc., ~12Mb)

szeng
Here is an example of embedding C code in rebol 3 directly using FFI and libtcc: https://github.com/zsx/c2r3/blob/master/demos/libtcc/helloworld.reb
SWhite
That's a fun thing to see.  Some decades ago, when Burroughs still was a computer company, one could, in a COBOL source program for their Medium Systems line, type the declarative ENTER SYMBOLIC and then start coding assembler language.  Second-generation code embedded in a third-generation program.  Now with the C-in-REBOL example, we see third-generation code embedded in a somewhat-fourth-generation program.

Arnold
Created and uploaded the video of how to compile the game of Xiangqi programmed in Red.
http://youtu.be/5xjky_Ox1l4

NickA
New written tutorial about using jsLinb/Sigma IDE with Rebol, to create Mobile/Web apps:
http://re-bol.com/jslinb

Arnold
Renewed R3 Parse Project effort, "PARSE PROJECT II", looking for volunteers and feedback, trello available on https://trello.com/b/zt7KvVSl/rebol-parse-project-the-trello

Ashley
Munge 2.0.0
    Rewrote to be R3 specific
    R3 optimisations (20% faster than R2)
    Removed lots of R2 compatibility code
    Excel functions refactored to use Powershell/OLEDB (so MS Office is no longer required)
    load-excel function added
Updated documentation available here:
- http://dobeash.com/Munge/munge.html
- http://dobeash.com/Munge/support.html
Chris
AltJSON v0.3.5 for Rebol 3 (including current Ren/C version)
- Supports easier creation of JSON objects with set-word/value pairs in blocks, get-word/path lookup.
- Uses MAP! to correspond with incoming JSON objects.
- /FLAT refinement uses blocks for incoming JSON objects to allow for case-sensitive keys, parsing and null values.
Do/Import/Source: http://reb4.me/r3/altjson
Issues: https://github.com/rgchris/Scripts

Last message posted 110 weeks ago.