Description #
REBOL (Relative Expression-Based Object Language) is a lightweight, interpreted language designed for distributed Internet applications, known for its minimal syntax and human-readable DSL-style code.
History #
REBOL was created by Carl Sassenrath (creator of the Amiga OS kernel) and released in 1997 by REBOL Technologies. It was developed to simplify Internet programming by unifying code and data with a lightweight, flexible syntax.
Hello World Code #
print "Hello, World!"How to Run #
Option 1: Online
https://repl.it/@BrettHandley/REBOL
Option 2: Local
Download from https://www.rebol.com/download.html
Run the interpreter:
rebolThen type:
print "Hello, World!"Key Concepts #
- Domain-specific language (DSL) focused syntax
- Code and data use the same format (homoiconic)
- Dynamically typed
- Message-passing style evaluation
- Tiny footprint, ideal for embedded and IoT
- Native datatypes like URLs, emails, dates
- Built-in support for networking and GUI
- Extensible via dialecting (custom mini-languages)
- Scripting and interactive REPL
- Designed to reduce boilerplate code
Try It Online #
https://repl.it/@BrettHandley/REBOL
Fun Facts #
- REBOL uses “dialecting” to let developers define custom mini-languages.
- Despite its size, REBOL includes networking, GUI, and data parsing features out of the box.
- Influenced later minimal languages like Red, which aims to be REBOL-compatible with modern features.
Resources #
Official Site
REBOL Docs
REBOL 3 GitHub (Community)
REBOL Cookbook
