Rebol or not Rebol? newbie programmer seeking advice

[Ogeima]

Hi,

I'm fed up with huge applications which aren't good at all the tasks that they "can" do on the one hand, and don't do "everything" either on the other hand. For trading, I end up running many apps, each of them pretty heavy, to the extent that 3.6Ghz/1Go RAM will soon feel restrained...

So, lately, I've been thinking about learning a "real" programming language. What I'd like to do is an application which imports several live data feeds (for example through DDE link) simultaneously, manipulates them a bit and displays them in one (or several) charts. With the ability to show more than one "manipulated data" (ie naked price + some indicators) in one chart. And of course the ability to treat the incoming feed as a "stream" ie. to perform the calculation only on new incoming data.

My question is: Can Rebol do it? And, if it's not within its "natural scope", which other language would you recommend to an amateur programmer like me?

For me programming is only one of several tools, so keeping under control the time spent (learning a language and) coding applications is important. For that reason I'd like to pick up a programming language that is adapted to my current need while being powerful enough to be used for quite different tailored, trading-related tasks later (including number crunching on large files). An programmer-friendly, "do it all language" that is not just a glue, to build focused applications. I don't mind a steep learning curve, as long as a plateau is within reach.

My little programming background in short: some trading platform specific languages, decent (but mostly forgotten) PL/SQL & Rexx, bits of FORTRAN and C from university times, bits of IDL, tidbits of VBA, zero OO, no IT education. Some i'm not IT & programming literate, but programming has always worked for me when I needed it, and I know how to learn.

I won't get into C/C++ nor Java, MIT' SICP lectures send me towards Lisp, but even lispers don't seem to be that happy with CL; Python/Ruby will be too slow when I'll do some number crunching (or would they inot?), and yesterday I came across Rebol.

I understand that Rebol is programmer friendly. But is it adapted to implement the application described above? If not, which other languages would fit?

As you can see, I'm in the dark, so any advice will be most welcome!

Ogeima.

[rebolek]

Hi,
I think REBOL is very good for your kind of tasks. You surely will run into some problems when developing your app, but don't hesitate and ask here

[Bertrand]

Rebol is a good choice.

You can try NewLisp or FBSL (Freestyle Basic) too...
... or the three.

 

[Sunanda]

I'd certainly write the application you describe in REBOL.

It's not a huge stretch from Rexx to REBOL, provided you stick to the more procedural approach. If you have some LISP experience, then you'll soon cotton on to the depths REBOL has.

[Graham]

OTOH, it would not be the first program I'd like to program in Rebol.

Are there any demos out there that show graphs responding in real time to incoming data?

[Nelson B.]

Hi,

I'm fed up with huge applications which aren't good at all the tasks that they "can" do on the one hand, and don't do "everything" either on the other hand. For trading, I end up running many apps, each of them pretty heavy, to the extent that 3.6Ghz/1Go RAM will soon feel restrained...

So, lately, I've been thinking about learning a "real" programming language. What I'd like to do is an application which imports several live data feeds (for example through DDE link) simultaneously, manipulates them a bit and displays them in one (or several) charts. With the ability to show more than one "manipulated data" (ie naked price + some indicators) in one chart. And of course the ability to treat the incoming feed as a "stream" ie. to perform the calculation only on new incoming data.

....

My little programming background in short: some trading platform specific languages, decent (but mostly forgotten) PL/SQL & Rexx, bits of FORTRAN and C from university times, bits of IDL, tidbits of VBA, zero OO, no IT education. Some i'm not IT & programming literate, but programming has always worked for me when I needed it, and I know how to learn.

I won't get into C/C++ nor Java, MIT' SICP lectures send me towards Lisp, but even lispers don't seem to be that happy with CL; Python/Ruby will be too slow when I'll do some number crunching (or would they inot?), and yesterday I came across Rebol.

Ogeima.

Hey Ogeima, you are saying that you are a newbie... if so, who am I? I'm an absolute Rebol newbie and I have no idea what are you talking about.. 

Peace