Quick Facts

* REBOL is pronounced "reb-ol" as in "rebel with a cause".

* REBOL stands for Relative Expression Based Object Language. It uses "relative expressions" (i.e. context dependence) to create a powerful new dimension similar to that found in natural human languages.
* REBOL was designed over two decades by Carl Sassenrath, the operating system architect responsible for the Amiga OS, the world's first multitasking operating system for personal computers.

* New users can begin immediately. REBOL downloads in seconds and requires no special environments or libraries to run.

Main Concepts

* REBOL provides a lightweight platform for Internet applications. REBOL's power makes applications small so they are less expensive to create, distribute, maintain, and upgrade. In the size of a typical web page, you can fit an entire REBOL application.

* REBOL is "both sided" technology. It is an integrated solution to distributed computing that works best when it runs on both the client and the server. (However, that is not a requirement.)


* REBOL is more than just a programming language. It is also a language for representing data and metadata. It provides a consistent architecture for computation, storage, and exchange of information.

* REBOL introduces the concept of dialecting. Dialects are small, efficient, domain-specific languages for code, data, and metadata.

* REBOL has been intentionally kept small and lightweight IT only takes a few seconds to download, and it requires no special libraries to run, but it includes hundreds of functions, dozens of datatypes, built-in help, multiple Internet protocols, graphics, sound, and much more.

Other Information

* REBOL code and data span more than 40 system platforms. A script written on Windows runs equally well on Linux, BSD, OS X, and many other platforms... with no changes necessary.

* REBOL comes in a variety of packages. Beginners can use the freely licensed REBOL/Core and REBOL/View packages. Professionals will find REBOL/Command and REBOL/SDK to be powerful tools.

* More than five million copies of REBOL have been downloaded since its first release in 1998.

* Organizations large and small use REBOL to create Internet applications and solutions in a fraction of the normal time and cost.