REBOL 3 - some history on making the Alpha

The Ongoing History of REBOL Release 3

First announced on 25-Mar-2006, (but hinted at much earlier) REBOL 3 is getting closer to being ready for public Beta.

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Please Note: The work in on-going. REBOL 3 is still in ALPHA

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01-Jun-2007

The initial R3/Alpha was released to a select few REBOL developers along with a DocBase wiki and special Altme world.

What follows is a brief history of the subsequent releases.

02-Jun-2007 2:05:26 PM

rebol.dll updated - fixes listed bugs. Includes mezz changes.
rebhost.exe updated - graphics fixes.

05-Jun-2007 9:03:55 PM

rebol.dll updated - fixes 13 items marked as BUILT or WISH in tracker.

06-Jun-2007 4:09:05 AM

rebhost.exe updated - contains various graphics fixes including:
-RICHTEXT: DROP keyword fixed, PARA information is now properly passed to the engine.
-italic bitmap font fix
-gob/image with alpha blends correctly
-DRAW: IMAGE keyword fully implemented (draw-test.r enhanced)

07-Jun-2007 7:45:36 PM

Updating REBOL.dll:
-Fixes APPEND problem on objects (also allows APPEND to contain existing words)
-Fixes PERCENT! in many ways.
-Allows -q on command line (or link) to avoid sphash.
-Other small things

11:59:08 PM
Updated REBOL.dll - Alpha 4 - Bug fixes.

12-Jun-2007 9:56:26 AM

rebhost.exe updated:
-fixed bugs
-DRAW: IMAGE now supports NEAREST,BILINEAR,BICUBIC and GAUSSIAN filter types
-image filters now handle properly alphachannel on images
-fixed color keying on images
-added RESAMPLE blur-radius [decimal!] mode to IMAGE-FILTER
-added REFLECT REPEAT pattern-offset[integer!] pattern-width [integer!] modes to IMAGE

5:18:45 PM
Minor update: REBOL.dllscheme actor functions will now trampoline from the datatype actions. Allows them to use a subset of arguments, as long as the refinement names match.

11:13:26 PM
REBOL.dll - Alpha 6
See Tracker for changes marked as Built

13-Jun-2007 5:48:04 AM

rebhost.exe updated:
-fixed alpha channel bug in image filters in resample mode
-fixed transform crash in image filters
-the pattern widht argument of image filter pattern is now relative to the pattern offset
-updated examples/draw-filters.r demo.

14-Jun-2007 2:23:11 AM

REBOL.dll - Alpha 7
Fixes bugs marked as BUILT.
Fixes /part refinement for many functions including COPY, TAKE, and more.
Allows event creation and field access.,

12:22:43 PM
REBOL.dll - Alpha 8
Fix in TCP read-buffer expansion.

12:42:09 PM
REBOL.dll - Alpha 9
Changes TAKE/part to return a series, not value. (Use just TAKE for a single value).
Adds TAKE for strings.

16-Jun-2007 12:36:44 AM

REBOL.dll - Alpha 10
Fixes low level allocation optimization that corrupted memory.
This change fixes the looping TCP write/read test.

2:37:23 AM
New REBOL.dll and rebhost.exe - should fix more TCP bugs.
-implemented SHAPE + all shape commands
-implemented MATRIX
-implemented PUSH; now stores all useful attrributes settings not only matrix
-words reffering to DRAW blocks are now recursively evaluated
-PEN and FILL-PEN can be reset using logic! ie. PEN off
-implemented LINE-PATTERN
-removed FONT
-implemented TEXT offset [pair!] rich-text [block!]
-added FIXED arg to LINE-WIDTH

19-Jun-2007 1:54:01 PM

REBOL.dll and REBHOST.exe updated - Alpha 11,
Fixes various problems in TCP, WAIT, events, etc to help HTTP code.
Fixes GC problem in draw dialects that caused tiger.r to crash.

6:13:41 PM
REBOL.dll - Alpha 12
Fixes bugs listed in tracker.

6:15 PM
new exe is uploaded:
-removed pattern pen color from PEN
-implemented image on strokes using PEN some-image
-LINE-PATTERN now defines pattern pen color: LINE-PATTERN red 10 20 30
-fixed possible GC bug in recursive draw block references
-reworked gradients, removed all gradient definitions from FILL-PEN to GRAD-PEN
-gradient now support offsets for gradient colors like:
grad-pen linear 100x100 0 600 0 1 1 red 0.2 yellow 0.4 green 0.65 blue 0.8

10:42:46 PM
REBOL.dll Alpha 13
More Tracker bug fixes, including SORT and RANDOM.
WHAT function now works again.
NOTE: CAUSE (error) function removed. Use DO for that. Mezz updated.

20-Jun-2007 3:14:38 PM

REBOL.dll Alpha 14
More tracker bugs fixed.
to-date now ignores weekday in conversion

10:34:18 PM
REBOL.dll Alpha 15
Changes timing loop to compensate for poor timer resolution on Windows. Should be more accurate now.
May also fix a few small bugs.

21-Jun-2007 8:22:32 AM

Published new exe
-fixed bug
-fixed text rendering from inside DRAW dialect block

5:15:59 PM
released new EXE
-fixed bug in gob/color and gob/alpha - now trasparet color gobs works OK.

26-Jun-2007 6:51:26 PM

REBOL.dll and Rebhost.exe - Alpha 16
Also, INPUT works now, but it is not perfect yet (due to problems related to Win32 default console)
Also, you can now use paths in gob and event make blocks for smaller code:
g: make gob! [size: path/size]

27-Jun-2007 12:40:15 AM

REBOL.dll - Alpha 17
Fixes bugs marked as built.
Now MOLD system works (more than once),
Note that second and third on functions perform deep copy now. This is for security, as we move toward enabling module features.

12:22:47 PM
Just posted new Rebhost.exe:
-added vectorial text mode in DRAW
-added additional pair! arg for TEXT in DRAW for word wrapping bounds
-fixed gradient bug
-CLIP now react on translate and scale,
note that you can use DRAW pens, image fills and gradients etc. on the vectorial text (as in R2) until you specify first color in the richtext dialect block.
Also the additional pair! in TEXT command is only for word wrapping. To clip the text you need to use CLIP command. Note that CLIP is rectangular and cannot be rotated.
To enable the vectorial text use: gob/draw: [pen red fill-pen blue text vectorial 50x50 [size 60 "This is some text"]]

4:52:52 PM
REBOL.dll - Alpha 18
Adds MAP function:
>> map [a b] [1 2 3 4] [a + b]
== [3 7]

28-Jun-2007 1:19:09 AM

Rebhost.exe and REBOL.dll - Alpha 19
Fixes INPUT and long outputs.
Allows CTRL C in long output.
This is a big change for stdio for MS win32

1:33:46 AM
REBOL.dll - Alpha 20
fixes extra lines at end of long print
Also: fixes FOREACH bug

6-Jul-2007 1:45:02 PM

REBOL.dll - Alpha 21
Entirely new PATH evaluation code. This is a big change.

17-Jul-2007 3:32:40 PM

REBOL.dll and Rebhost.exe - Alpha 22
Many changes.
Window event handling updated. Keyboard events, modifiers. Event/window. Window offset and size updated on resize and move.
Many graphics improvements including new EFFECT, DRAW, and TEXT changes and features.
CALL and LAUNCH added so you can run test scripts now from a master program.
Text CARET mapping added, including offset mapping (both ways) and highlighting.
More system/options values are set now on startup.
Vectors can be used now for storage (no math ops): 8, 16, 32, 64 bit integers and 32, 64 bit decimals. Note they are zero based.
Various bugs listed in bug tracker fixed.

18-Jul-2007 2:31:10 PM

EXE and DLL updated - minor bug fixes.

30-Jul-2007 12:50:04 AM

EXE and DLL updated.

2-Aug-2007 7:18:29 PM

DELECT function documented.
change in DELECT from earlier versions.

3-Aug-2007 1:10:23 PM

EXE and DLL updated - Primary changes are:
Many more effects are online.
More defaults for graphics dialect.
DELECT function has changed.

1:14:38 PM
VID updated

6:17:54 PM
REBOL.dll - Alpha 28
- Forall and forskip added
- They are native functions
- Forskip allows negative sizes

4-Aug-2007 3:03:53 AM

new effect-lab2.r

6:15:15 PM
REBOL.dll - Alpha 29
- MOLD/all /flat /only fixed
- Other minor fixes

7:38:53 PM
REBOL.dll - Alpha 30
- more MOLD fixes

10:16:02 PM
REBOL.dll - Alpha 31
- Percent datatype revised.

5-Aug-2007 12:27:20 AM

REBOL.dll - Alpha 32
- Fixes related to bugs in DATE datatype

1:37:15 AM
REBOL.dll - Alpha 33
- Fixes COMPOSE/DEEP
- Fixes REVERSE on various types
- Fixes char problems

6-Aug-2007 2:00:43 PM

REBOL.dll - Alpha 34
- Removed memory corruption check from bind function.
For some scripts, you should see a little speed increase.

10:23:29 PM
REBOL.dll - Alpha 35
- Fixes memory corruption from GC'd errors
- Fixes PARSE for chars > 127
- Fixes PARSE with (return) and (break)
- Fixes to-integer of binary eg. #{FFFF FFFF FFFF FFFF}
- Allows to-decimal of binary eg. #{4093 4800 0000 0000}

7-Aug-2007 11:25:31 PM

REBOL.dll - Alpha 36
- SHOW optimized for blocks that may contain duplicate gobs or panes with duplicate gobs (avoids double show). Also, efficiently handles words and paths in the show block.
- Various fixes

8-Aug-2007 3:10:27 PM

REBOL.dll - Alpha 37
- Fixes bind when used to bind function arguments. Note that such bindings are relative to the function, and those values cannot be passed outside the function activation frame.

3:45:31 PM
rebhost.exe - Alpha 37
- added ALHPAMUL effect
- added second pair! arg to SHADOW (src image offset)
- added EFFECT command to DRAW dialect
- fixed COLORIZE and CONVOLVE bugs
-para/align para/valign and font/style definitions are now working in richtext dialect
- multiple little fixes and improvements

11:07:56 PM
REBOL.dll - Alpha 38
- Changes to improve memory stability.

11:31:26 PM
rebhost.exe - Removed the auto-quit on empty lines.

9-Aug-2007 6:59:08 PM

REBOL.dll - Alpha 39
- HTTP included.
Rebhost.exe - Alpha 39
- VID included
- Splash included (written in VID now)

11-Aug-2007 4:59:09 PM

REBOL.dll - Alpha 40
- Fixes a variety of bugs
- Changes in boot for scripts (see system/intrinsics/begin)
- Changes in DO (see system/intrinsics/do)
- Changes in Load (source load)
- System/options files are now files, not strings
- IN now allows IN OBJECT BLOCK (see blog).

5:48:40 PM
REBOL.dll - Alpha 41
- Fixes more bugs
- Especially fixes problem that crashed TRACE.
Note: Beginning with A40, a script provided as an argument to the exe will QUIT when it returns. If you don't want that, add HALT to it.
Also: as of now, you can do urls: do http://www.example.com/script.r

12-Aug-2007 5:21:28 PM

REBOL.dll - Alpha 43
- Foreach on string
- Command line option --halt (-h) added
- Fixes for directories on startup (so editing tools can specify script again).

10:46:45 PM
Alpha 44 - both exe and dll
- Drag and drop files on a window.

13-Aug-2007 12:46:12 PM

Alpha 45 - both exe and dll
- Adds REQUEST-FILE -- but very minimal one - no options - returns only one file.
native file requestor.

15-Aug-2007 2:38:28 PM

DLL - Alpha 46 - Fixes
-POWER with negative number and exponent
-Bug in EXISTS? with absolute file paths
-to money! produces garbage
-Can't convert money! to decimal!
-Can't say to-money $1.00
-SOURCE path
-view? returns false
-GET does not work on path! datatype
-Crash on VID programs run from Explorer
you can now do:
source system/intrinsic/begin

8:30:04 PM
DLL - Alpha 47
-Fixes CHANGE/PART bug (that caused REPLACE to fail)

16-Aug-2007 1:29:24 AM

DLL - Alpha 48
-read %. and read %./ are the same
-function recursion crash
-INPUT is not working after long print
-closure recursion crash
-COMPOSE/DEEP does not copy path!s
-view? returns false.

10:45:07 PM
DLL - Alpha 49
- Add dictionary datatype.

11:01:02 PM
DLL - Alpha 49 A
- Added the necessary parts of the old HASH to make the set functions work again. This makes REBOL a bit bigger, but keeps the set functions running.

17-Aug-2007 11:57:51 AM

DLL - Alpha 50
- Dictionary! is now Map!
- Map! allows strings now too.

1:19:03 PM
DLL - Alpha 50 A - fixes name from prior build.

5:07:57 PM
DLL - Alpha 51 - Slight change to decimal == to use ULPS method.

18-Aug-2007 1:36:34 AM

DLL - Alpha 52
- Adds MONEY! as precision math datatype.
- Very limited implementation, just for early testing.
- + - * / only at this time
- also MAKE money! works
- MOLD too
- auto-reording of args for coersion not allowed (you can do $10 + 1, but not 1 + $10 yet).
The datatype has about 25 digits of precision.
>> $12345678901234567890.12345 + 10
== $12345678901234567900.12345

5:03:20 PM
DLL - Alpha 53
- Rest of Money! datatype (comparision, etc.)

6:28:08 PM
DLL - A 54 - Money fixes.

7:22:56 PM
DLL - A 54 - Money fixes.

19-Aug-2007 1:43:29 AM

EXE and DLL - Alpha 55
- Clipboard device and scheme
- DRAW and EFFECT natives detect errors now (but SHOW does not)
- Minor fix to Money type.
- Includes shadow fix
- Also includes newer VID.

20-Aug-2007 12:09:08 AM

DLL - A 55
-This change defines new function arguments:

4:56:32 PM
DLL - A 56
- SELF implemented - may still be some areas where it is not yet perfect.

21-Aug-2007 12:04:44 AM

DLL - A 57
- Various bug fixes, including change/part bug.
- Adds DECOMPRESS/limit refinement

27-Aug-2007 11:04:15 AM

DLL - A 58 - bugs marked as Built

5:57:53 PM
DLL - A 59
- Rewrite of decimal FORM/MOLD conversion code to conform to the properties of REBOL.
- This is a major change, please test it well.
In general, R3 tries to keep decimals out of E (scientific notation) format as much as possible. But, after 15 digits (or below 10E-6) it will convert to E format.
Percents will never convert to E. Instead, they max out at 15 digits, and will truncate to zero in the other direction.
In addition, the primary conversion is still done by the OS library to keep it as fast as possible. To allow for multiplatform, the OS side of the converter is exported from the HOST library back into the R3 DLL.
This allows porting efforts to select the proper clib conversion to work with R3. (Equiv to _efmt() in Win32).

8:01:29 PM
DLL - A 60
- Offset-to-caret fix

28-Aug-2007 6:56:49 PM

DLL - A 61
- Fixes DEBASE bug.
- Minor fixes

29-Aug-2007 12:27:04 AM

DLL - A 62
- Adds /next and /relax to transcode.
/Next allows loading a value at a time, like load/next.
/Relax will prevent error throws on bad syntax, allowing your code to handle parsing the case.

1:41:53 PM
DLL - A 63
- Various changes.
- Note change in FOREACH (uses [a:] not [:a] var format now)
- Note change in TRANSCODE - use TO BLOCK! for normal translation of code. TRANSCODE is for /NEXT /RELAX style translation method.
- Also, you can now do OBJECT-A = OBJECT-B (including error objects)

2:17:05 PM
DLL - A64
- Updates EXE to be consistent with above changes.

11:26:20 PM
DLL - A 65
- REDUCE/no-set - http://www.rebol.net/r3blogs/0101.html - useful!
- MAP! datatype finds set-words - so you can use them like:
m: make map! [a: 10]
print m/a

30-Aug-2007 11:25:04 PM

DLL - A 66
- Changes to allow QUIT to be script-relative.

31-Aug-2007 7:01:19 PM

DLL - A 67 - Fixes new bug in DO.

2-Sep-2007 2:45:34 AM

DLL - A 68:
- Allows nesting of the HALT/QUIT/CATCH mechanism
- Bug fixes.
DLL 68 does not allow UNSET values in the default all values typeset.
For example:
f: func [a] [probe a]
will no longer allow unset for a
but:
f: func [any-type!] [probe a]
does allow it

3:34:23 AM
Rebhost.exe - A 68
- gob/options: [resize no-border no-title]

3-Sep-2007 12:07:47 AM

DLL - A 69
- Removed ecvt due to bug in linux wine - when using the multithreaded clib dll.
Rather than depend on gcvt() or ecvt() which vary between OSes and their versions, we now use a direct conversion (which is probably faster anyway).
Note: If the number ranges outside of e-6 to e+15, then we switch back to gcvt, because we know it can handle it ok at that point.
This release also fixes ls (LS) and cd when no arg given (due to change in arg unset handling).

6:19:34 PM
EXE and DLL - Alpha 70
- VID updated - mainly for resize gob option change,

5-Sep-2007 12:00:55 AM

DLL - A 71
- Clean-path added. Currently, works like in R2 where current dir is prepended, but there is now /only to avoid that.
Note that this clean-path should work "to some degree" on URLs.

11:25:13 PM
EXE and DLL A 72
- New VIEW system
- All demos will break.

11:27:22 PM
Updated demos:
effect-lab2.r
drop-file.r
shadow-test.r
stress-effects.r
shadow-test2.r
vid-demos.r
file-catalog.r
effect-lab.r
draw-editor.r
easy-vid3.r
caret-check.r
caret-check2.r
fx-test.r
cursor-test.r
tiger.r
heartbeat-R2vsR3.r
Note: LAUNCHER working again. It is now a mezzanine.

6:26:09 PM
DLL - A 73
* Adds VIEW/no-wait and VIEW/as-is refinements.
* Fixes bugs listed in tracker.
* Fixes a few bugs not listed.

7:45:01 PM
DLL - A 74
* Fixes a time range bugs

7-Sep-2007 2:08 PM

DLL - A 75
* Changes GOB/options to GOB/flags
* Changes VIEW options MODES to be FLAGS
* Fixes default handler: CLOSE uniews window now too.,
Updating example scripts

6:11:34 PM
DLL - A 76
* Removes + on strings.
* Adds ajoin function (high speed version of: to-string! reduce [ ] )

11-Sep-2007 11:03 PM

EXE and DLL - A 77 - V 2.99.3
This release includes major work for porting R3 to Linux and OSX.