Red is a programming language designed to overcome the limits of the programming language Rebol. Red was introduced in 2011 by Nenad Rakočević, and is both an imperative and functional programming language. Its syntax and general usage overlaps that of the interpreted Rebol language.
Red/System is similar to C, but packaged into a Rebol lexical structure– for example, one would write ifx>y [print"Hello"] instead of if(x>y){printf("Hello\n");}.
Red is a homoiconic language, which is capable of metaprogramming with Rebol-like semantics. Red's runtime library is written in Red/System, and uses a hybrid approach: it compiles what it can deduce statically and uses an embedded interpreter otherwise. The project roadmap includes a just-in-time compiler for cases in between, but this has not yet been implemented.
Red seeks to remain independent of any other toolchain; it does its own code generation. It is therefore possible to cross-compile Red programs from any platform it supports to any other, via a command-line switch. Both Red and Red/System are distributed as open-source software under the BSD 3-clause (modified) license. The runtime library is distributed under the more permissive Boost Software License.
As of version 0.6.4 Red includes a garbage collector "the Simple GC".
Red Language architecture schema
Introduction
Red was introduced in the Netherlands in February 2011 at the Rebol & Boron conference by its author Nenad Rakočević. In September 2011, the Red programming language was presented to a larger audience during the Software Freedom Day 2011. Rakočević is a long-time Rebol developer known as the creator of the Cheyenne HTTP server.
Features
Red's syntax and semantics are very close to those of Rebol. Like Rebol, it strongly supports metaprogramming and domain-specific languages (DSLs) and is therefore an efficient tool for dialecting (creating embedded DSLs). Red includes a dialect named Red/System, a C-level language which provides systems programming facilities. Red is easy to integrate with other tools and languages as a dynamic-link library (DLL) (libRed) and very lightweight (around 1MB). It is also able to cross-compile to various platforms (see #Cross compiling section below) and create packages for platforms that require them (e.g., .APK on Android). Red also includes a fully reactive cross-platform GUI system based on an underlying reactive dataflow engine, a 2D drawing dialect comparable to SVG, compile-time and runtime macro support, and more than 40 standard datatypes.
Goals
The following is the list of Red's Goals as presented on the Software Freedom Day 2011:
Simplicity ("An IDE should not be necessary to write code.")
↑Sasu, Alexandru (22 November 2018). "Review of Red". Softpedia. Retrieved February 21, 2024.
↑lucindamichele. "0.6.4 Simple GC and Pure Red GUI Console". Retrieved 2018-12-16. The main feature for 0.6.4 is what we call the Simple GC (Garbage Collector). A more advanced GC is planned for the future
