This comes up from time to time. A really cool idea, but it didn't go anywhere so far. It seems like a lot of work has occurred according to github, but to the potential users, it doesn't seem like much has ultimately changed since when I was super excited for it in 2014. The team did some detour to look into block chain and an ICO like 5+ years ago that seemed to have derailed things. Last I checked, Windows flagged the installer as suspicious. It would be really cool to get this off the ground though.
hn-ifs · 4h ago
I remember looking at red ages ago but never got round to using it. I like to learn odd non-mainstream languages. Currently learning Nushell which is an amazing alternative shell. And I like the look of roc-lang too.
I'm desperate for a truly cross platform programming language with gui abilities on those platforms. I'm slowly learning dart/flutter for this but truly wish for something simpler. I get the reasoning behind flutters declarative style but it's certainly not simple, especially when you get to state management.
gcanyon · 1h ago
"simple cross-platform GUI+programming language" livecode.com fits that description. It's been my daily driver for years, but full disclosure I'm now looking for something similar to your requirements, but python-based.
RodgerTheGreat · 1m ago
Depending on how elaborate your GUI needs are, CardStock might be suitable: https://cardstock.run
WillAdams · 1h ago
Any progress from the openXtalk people trying to keep the opensource of Livecode (from before the rugpull) going?
I bought a book on using QT6 from Python --- hoping to finish an initial read and then give it a try (unless something better comes along).
bobajeff · 2h ago
Many people here hate on Electron but cross platform gui app development really sucks without it.
0x0203 · 4h ago
Tcl/tk is still alive and doing well. It's cross platform, very quick to learn, and easily embeddable into other languages/projects.
hollerith · 4h ago
Can you name an important software written in Tcl or Tk?
Important softwares written in Ruby for example include Rails and Homebrew.
coliveira · 2h ago
Tcl is the embedded language of git. Standard git gui is written in Tcl/Tk. Tcl is also the script language for sqlite.
hollerith · 2h ago
.gitconfig is in an INI-like format though, which is not anything like Tcl.
Also, does anyone use the "standard" git GUI?
>Tcl is also the script language for sqlite.
OK, thanks.
nilamo · 2h ago
Tk has been embedded in python as the GUI toolkit since at least 2.x days. It's used for IDLE, the IDE shipped with Python, and is also used for the turtle module's graphics.
SomeHacker44 · 2h ago
The FPGA software from Xilinx and Altera are scripted with Tcl/Tk.
cmrdporcupine · 48m ago
This. In fact it seems like plenty of hardware-eng tools use Tcl, and looking at all alternatives it's not a bad choice.
With Tcl you get something like a Lisp with a flexible consistent syntax, but less brainy and more pragmatic, and designed to drive other tools.
hollerith · 2h ago
Thanks for the reply.
dmux · 2h ago
A large part of flightaware.com’s systems were written in TCL.
doublerabbit · 3h ago
One of the big investment banks use TCL/TK, for real-time e-trading. Source my last gig.
The "important software" are normally kept behind NDAs, so you never hear about their uses. TCL was also used on the Mars Rover.
I wish the nu-shell stuff was set up so that its language could be used as a Rust crate independentl of the shell? Like in your own runtime? Because it's not a bad general scripting language and kind of makes sense to me to embed in things like editors etc. Places where people would use Tcl (e.g. hw eng / fpga tools etc) or a Lisp (emacs) or an embedded Python/Lua now.
But when I looked at their crate structure it did not seem like this was possible. I don't love nushell the language but it actually fits a niche that not much else fits.
Tangential, but at least for the minimalism-inclined, Rebol's inventor Carl Sassenrath might be an interesting guy: https://sassenrath.com/computing.html
I remember being really impressed by REBOL, I thought it was a really cool language and I did make some small tools with it. To bad greed ruined it for everybody.
fuzztester · 2h ago
how did greed ruin it?
I had tried it out a bit earlier, but don't remember reading anything about it getting ruined.
praptak · 2h ago
GP probably means being initially released under a proprietary license.
austin-cheney · 6h ago
Red describes itself as functional imperative. I used to use Red as an example of what programming could be when people try to ham fist declarative extremism on me. Seeing the words imperative and functional used together with examples would silence most of the nonsense.
7thaccount · 1h ago
It is difficult to pin down how to describe it. It is homoiconic as well like lisp (at least the scripting part of Red), but seems to be used in some kind of functional imperative style.
exikyut · 9h ago
Does the GUI work on Linux yet?
Levitating · 2h ago
I tried some of the examples using red-view and it worked perfectly.
It uses gtk3 behind the scenes.
kseistrup · 9h ago
> For Linux 64-bit distros, you need to install 32-bit supporting libraries.
Will it ever be 64-bit?
baranul · 2h ago
That is a major showstopper for it getting attention. Don't know how making sure it runs on 64-bit OSes was not/is not a top priority. Appears that people have been complaining about that for years.
kseistrup · 9h ago
> The 0.7 should be the last big milestone for the 32-bit Red version and current toolchain and we will be working on that first.
> v1.0b : (beta) completed self-hosted Red with 64-bit support.
See you at v1.0, then.
drivingmenuts · 7h ago
I’m guessing not to be confused with REDEngine, the main driver of Cyberpunk 2077 and the Witcher series of games? REDEngine has its own language is my understanding.
shakna · 4h ago
Red the language came along in 2011 - the same year as Witcher II used REDEngine for the first time. So I guess I can see where some confusion can arise.
Red is a general programming language, instead of a game engine's personal DSL.
Nekorosu · 8h ago
Impossible to run on macOS. The provided "binary" is a complete mess. It's actually a zip archive with an app inside of it with a binary that doesn't match a modern Appple Silicon architecture.
I don't understand why the download link is even there. In practice, macOS is not supported. I hope it works better on Linux. Can't care less about Windows.
anta40 · 6h ago
Last time I tried (perhaps 4 years ago?), it works on 64-bit Linux. But you still need to install 32-bit compatibility libs.
On macOS, well sadly it's still 32-bit. Not sure how many folks are still using Mojave...
coliveira · 2h ago
So this probably won't run on Apple silicon. They don't have support for 32bit apps.
zkmon · 9h ago
Wow - what's driving the quest for new programming languages? Is there a gap that is still not addressed by the existing languages?
At the core, there is only one control statement (GOTO) and a few operations that work on values in memory - IF, READ, WRITE, ADD etc. Anything else is a recipe that uses these ingredients.
mpweiher · 8h ago
It's all just Turing machines, or Lambda calculus, or NAND gates
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NAND_logic
Even FORTRAN was unnecessary.
Or maybe...maybe...we're having some problems that our current programming languages aren't addressing:
languages are not about what you can do but what you can safely (that is, without introducing bugs) abstract while remaining productive (you can code easily) and conducive of human organizations (you can organize team communication around the code).
ModernMech · 1h ago
That's like asking "What's with all these people writing books? Is there a gap that is still not addressed by existing books?" Programming languages are fun to write, it's not more complicated than that.
cmrdporcupine · 9h ago
REBOL is 28 years old.
brabel · 7h ago
And Red has been around since 2013.
novosel · 9h ago
True, true. But maybe somewhat reductive? What about complexity? The one arising from the growing code, and the other in the brain using the language? I feel new languages try to strategize in the domain of complexity management.
anonzzzies · 5h ago
Are they? Examples (this (red/rebol) are OLD)? I see more crap. We already have ways to manage complexity; we have VERY advanced type systems that are finally feasible (my joy) but no one can work with them, and llms not yet. You can manage resources, logic, proofs etc all with typesystems. Rust is a step (people like it as they can make changes to large codebases without leakage somewhere you 'forgot' is there and others like it because there are less footguns), but we have the future already in a bunch of other languages it's just not used. So what do you mean with " I feel new languages try to strategize in the domain of complexity management."?
(Disclaimer: I think the GP comment is of a level that I don't think should even be considered replying to, so I didn't)
petralithic · 6h ago
Languages are for humans, not for computers, who read binary anyway.
I'm desperate for a truly cross platform programming language with gui abilities on those platforms. I'm slowly learning dart/flutter for this but truly wish for something simpler. I get the reasoning behind flutters declarative style but it's certainly not simple, especially when you get to state management.
I bought a book on using QT6 from Python --- hoping to finish an initial read and then give it a try (unless something better comes along).
Important softwares written in Ruby for example include Rails and Homebrew.
Also, does anyone use the "standard" git GUI?
>Tcl is also the script language for sqlite.
OK, thanks.
With Tcl you get something like a Lisp with a flexible consistent syntax, but less brainy and more pragmatic, and designed to drive other tools.
The "important software" are normally kept behind NDAs, so you never hear about their uses. TCL was also used on the Mars Rover.
Take a look for yourself: https://wiki.tcl-lang.org/page/Who+Uses+Tcl
https://iced.rs
But when I looked at their crate structure it did not seem like this was possible. I don't love nushell the language but it actually fits a niche that not much else fits.
so I wait Zig to target https://github.com/jart/cosmopolitan at some point too
Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Sassenrath
I had tried it out a bit earlier, but don't remember reading anything about it getting ruined.
It uses gtk3 behind the scenes.
Will it ever be 64-bit?
> v1.0b : (beta) completed self-hosted Red with 64-bit support.
See you at v1.0, then.
Red is a general programming language, instead of a game engine's personal DSL.
I don't understand why the download link is even there. In practice, macOS is not supported. I hope it works better on Linux. Can't care less about Windows.
At the core, there is only one control statement (GOTO) and a few operations that work on values in memory - IF, READ, WRITE, ADD etc. Anything else is a recipe that uses these ingredients.
Or maybe...maybe...we're having some problems that our current programming languages aren't addressing:
https://www.hpi.uni-potsdam.de/hirschfeld/publications/media...
And so we should:
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3689492.3690052
(Disclaimer: I think the GP comment is of a level that I don't think should even be considered replying to, so I didn't)