Red Programming Language

Red is a new programming language strongly inspired by REBOL, but with a broader field of usage thanks to its native-code compiler, from system programming to high-level scripting, while providing modern support for concurrency and multi-core CPUs.

The language is in its early bootstrap phase, once complete it will be self-hosted. The Red software stack also contains another language, Red/System, which is a low-level dialect of Red. It is a limited C-level language with a Red look'n feel, required to build Red's runtime library and be the target language of Red's compiler. More information at red-lang.org.

Running the Red hello script

The compiler and linker are currently written in REBOL and can produce Windows, Linux, Syllable, Android and Mac OS X executables. So, for now, a REBOL/Core binary is required to compile Red and Red/System programs. Please follow the instructions for installing the compiler tool-chain:

1. Clone this git repository or download an archive (ZIP button above or from tagged packages).

2. Download a REBOL interpreter suitable for your OS: Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Solaris

3. Extract the rebol binary, put it in root folder, that's all!

4. Let's test it: run ./rebol, you'll see a >> prompt appear. Windows users need to double-click on the rebol.exe file to run it.

5. From the REBOL console type:

    >> do/args %red.r "%red/tests/hello.red"
   

The compilation process should finish with a ...output file size message. The resulting binary is in the working folder. Windows users need to open a DOS console and run hello.exe from there.

2. To see the intermediary Red/System code generated by the compiler, use:

    >> do/args %red.r "-v 1 %red/tests/hello.red"
   

Command-line options:

-d			: switches into debug mode.

-o <file>	: outputs executable to given path and/or filename.

-t <target>	: cross-compiles to another target (see table below).

-v <level>	: sets verbose mode. 1-3 are for Red only, above for Red/System.

Important: Red will be distributed as a binary to end users and the effect of:

red script.red

will be to compile and run it from memory directly. So the -o option will become mandatory in the future for generating an executable without running it. During the bootstrap stage, it is complex to support that feature, but anyway, we will implement it as soon as possible.

Running the Red REPL

1. From the REBOL console type:

    >> do/args %red.r "%red/tests/console.red"
   

2. From Unix, just type console from prompt, Windows users need to open a DOS console and run console.exe from there, or just click on the executable from Explorer (but you will miss the error messages then). Once the console launched, you should see a banner and a prompt:

    -=== Red Console alpha version ===-
    (only Latin-1 input supported)
    
    red>>
   

3. You can use it to test rapidly some Red code:

    red>> 1 + 2
    == 3
    
    red>> inc: func [n][n + 1]
    == func [n][n + 1]
    
    red>> inc 123
    == 124
   

Running the Red/System hello script

1. From the REBOL console type:

    >> change-dir %red-system/
   

2. Type: do/args %rsc.r "%tests/hello.reds", the compilation process should finish with a ...output file size message.

3. The resulting binary is in red-system/builds/, go try it! Windows users need to open a DOS console and run hello.exe from there.

The %rsc.r script is only a wrapper script around the compiler, for testing purpose. It accepts a -v <integer!> option for verbose logs. Try it with:

>> do/args %rsc.r "-v 5 %tests/hello.reds"

Cross-compilation support

Cross-compilation is easily achieved by using a -t command line option followed by a target ID. This command-line option works for both Red and Red/System compilers.

Currently supported targets are:

Target ID	Description
MSDOS	Windows, x86, console-only applications
Windows	Windows, x86, native applications
Linux	GNU/Linux, x86
Linux-ARM	GNU/Linux, ARMv5
Darwin	Mac OS X Intel, console-only applications
Syllable	Syllable OS, x86
Android	Android, ARMv5

For example, from Windows, to emit Linux executables:

>> do/args %rsc.r "-t Linux %tests/hello.reds"

From Linux, to emit Windows console executables:

>> do/args %rsc.r "-t MSDOS %tests/hello.reds"

Anti-virus false positive

Some anti-virus programs are a bit too sensitive and can wrongly report an alert on some binaries generated by Red, if that happens to you, please fill a ticket here, so we can report the false positive.

License

Both Red and Red/System are published under BSD license, runtime is under BSL license. BSL is a bit more permissive license than BSD, more suitable for the runtime parts.