REBOL/Core Setup and Operation

	Version 2.6.2
	From REBOL Technologies
	WWW.REBOL.COM

===Overview

---Introducing REBOL

REBOL is a new type of language created specifically for the
exchange and interpretation of information over the Internet.
Unlike other computer languages, REBOL (pronounced "rehb-el") was
designed as both a programming language <I>and</I> a data
exchange language. The result is an extremely powerful and
flexible tool that remains lightweight and easy to use.

REBOL/Core is the kernel of the REBOL system. It includes a
unique advanced interpreter, hundreds of predefined functions,
dozens of built-in datatypes, more than 10 network protocols,
compression and decompression, reflective embedded
documentation, and much more.

The worldwide adoption of REBOL continues to expand over time.
Although REBOL is still a "young" language in the computing arena,
more than two million people have downloaded it since 1998,
it is used in a growing number of companies for a wide range of
tasks, and it is rapidly gaining interest at educational
institutions throughout the world.

---Sources of Documentation

If you are new to REBOL, we recommend that you read the <A
HREF="http://www.rebol.com/docs/core23/rebolcore.html"><B><I>REBOL/Core
Users Guide</I></B></A> to get started. It is especially
important to understand the concept of a series, around which
everything in REBOL is built.

For a summary of changes made to REBOL/Core since version 2.5.0, see
the <A HREF="http://www.rebol.com/docs/changes.html"><B><I>REBOL/Core
Changes</I></B></A> document that is part of this distribution.

Once you start writing REBOL code and just need summary
information about functions, the <A
HREF="http://www.rebol.com/docs/dictionary.html"><B><I>REBOL
Dictionary</I></B></A> provides a valuable reference. It is the
best source for expanded and updated information about specific
REBOL functions.

Other REBOL information and updates are available from the <A
HREF="http://www.rebol.com/docs.html">REBOL Documentation</A> page of
our web site.

---System Requirements

REBOL/Core is lightweight in its system requirements and does
not require anything special to run. A system with these minimum
capabilities will work fine:

	CPU Speed:   100 MHz
	Main Memory: 32 MB
	Disk Space:  1 MB
	Networking:  TCP/IP

	Operating Systems:
		Windows XP, NT, 2K, ME, 98, 95
		Macintosh OS X
		Linux x86 Libc6
		Linux x86 Libc5
		Sun Solaris Sparc
		Free BSD x86
		(many more)

UNIX and Linux systems do not require X Windows operation in
order to run REBOL/Core.

REBOL/Core is easy to install (no installation) and use with
Apache and other web servers to perform CGI script processing.
See below.

---Getting Help

The REBOL/Core program has a built-in help function that provides
the description, arguments, and refinements for all functions. This
is very handy if you simply need to know the arguments to a specific
function while you are writing code.  For example, to get help about
the SEND function you would type:

	help send

You can also use help to obtain other information and search for
functions by name. Type "help" at the REBOL prompt for more
information.

In REBOL/Core you can also type:

	what

to see a summary of all REBOL functions. Or, you can run the
words.r script that is included in this distribution to create a
printable HTML summary of REBOL functions.

And finally, it is often helpful to look at the source code to
other scripts, functions, and examples to see how experts and
other users have written REBOL code and solved specific
problems. You can obtain the source to many REBOL built-in
functions by using the SOURCE function from the prompt. For
example, typing:

	source join

would show you the source code for the JOIN function.

Hundreds of other example scripts can be found in the <A
HREF="http://www.rebol.org">REBOL Script Library</A>, and on other
REBOL related web sites.

Another source for help is the community of users and experts who
subscribe to the REBOL.com email list. Answers to most questions are
usually posted within a few hours. To subscribe to the REBOL Email
List, send an email to rebol-request@rebol.com with the word
"subscribe" on the subject line. This can be done in REBOL with the
line:
 
	send rebol-request@rebol.com "subscribe"


---License Agreement

The End User License Agreement for REBOL/Core is included as a
file in this distribution. In addition, you can review the
license at any time by typing:

	license

at the REBOL prompt.

---Reporting Problems

To report a problem related to REBOL/Core or its documentation, or
to request new features, visit the <b><a
href="http://www.rebol.net/cgi-bin/rambo.r">RAMBO</a></b> bug
database.


If you have some other questions about products please contact REBOL
Technologies using the <A
HREF="http://www.rebol.com/feedback.html">Feedback Form</A> found on
our web site. Please be sure to specify the product name and version
number.

---Help Promote REBOL

Help us to tell others about REBOL and grow the REBOL community. It
would be great if you could put one of these logos on your web site,
and linking it to www.rebol.com.

=image graphics/pwr-rebol100.gif

=image graphics/pwr-rebol.png

Please read our <a href="http://www.rebol.com/logos.html">logo
page</a> for more information and other logos.

---Professional Products

If you want more capability than found in our free products,
please consider one of the following:

<A HREF="http://www.rebol.com/sdk.html"><B>REBOL/SDK</B></A>
(Software Development Kit) provides many additional REBOL
functions for professional and commercial developers. It
includes encapsulators to create executable programs,  advanced
encryption methods, DLL and shell command access, as well as the
source code to mezzanine functions, Internet protocols, view,
visual interface dialect (VID), and more.

<A HREF="http://www.rebol.com/command.html"><B>REBOL/Command</B></A>
is intended for enterprise developers who need Oracle, MySQL,
ODBC (SQLServer, Access, Excel) database interfaces,  access to
external libraries (DLLs), SSL secure sockets (HTTPS client),
encryption, shell commands, Fast-CGI mode, and more.

===Installing and Running

---Quick Start

To run REBOL/Core, just click on the REBOL icon or type:

	REBOL

in your system shell (terminal window).

When you see the REBOL prompt, type:

	print "it works"

to test it.

If you have an Internet connection, try typing:

	print read http://www.rebol.com

If that does not work, read the network setup section below.

---Installation Not Required

REBOL/Core does not require installation. You simply run the
REBOL program file and it starts.

If you want to send Email, or if you have a special network
configuration (such as a proxy server), you will need to provide
a few network settings. This can easily be done in your script
or you can create a user.r file that loads the settings each
time you run REBOL. See the Network Setup section below.

After you unarchive (unzip) REBOL/Core, you can locate it in any
folder (directory) on your system. You can also copy or move
REBOL/Core to any other location on your disk because it has no
installation "hooks" to worry about. In addition, to copy REBOL
to another computer, you can simply copy the executable file.

---Distribution Files

The REBOL/Core distribution archive includes these files:

:license.txt - A copy of the end user license agreement.

:rebol(.exe) - The REBOL/Core executable program.

:rebol.r - A file that contains additional changes or patches to
REBOL, if necessary. This file is not strictly required to run
REBOL, but if it exists when REBOL starts, it will automatically
be loaded. Note that in more recent releases, this file may be
empty.

:setup.html - This document about getting started with REBOL/Core.

:setup.r - A script that you can run to prompt you for your
network setup configuration. This script creates a user.r file
as a result (that is automatically loaded each time you run
REBOL/Core).

:words.r - A small script that builds an HTML summary sheet for
all REBOL function words. This is provided as an example script.
After running this script, open the words.html file with your
web browser to view the results.

---Running From an Icon

REBOL can be started by clicking on the REBOL program icon or a
shortcut to the program icon.

<I>Note that because REBOL/Core has no Windows installer, it
does not automatically associate .r files to run REBOL. However,
you can easily add your own .r file association. In any folder
window, click on the View Folder Options menu and select File
Types to add it.</I>

Once you have started REBOL, you can run scripts from its
command prompt using the DO function. For example:

	do %script.r

would run the script.r file. Do not forget the % to indicate that
it is a file.

Here is another example that would run a script from a web site:

	do http://www.example.com/script.r

If in Windows (or other systems) you want to create a shortcut
icon that automatically runs a specific REBOL script, follow the
instructions for Running From a Shell described below.

---Running From a Shell

REBOL can be started from the command line with a variety of
options and arguments. To view a summary, start REBOL and type:

	usage

at the REBOL prompt.  Or, run REBOL with the option:

	REBOL -?

The format of the REBOL command line is: 

	REBOL [options] [script] [args]

All of these arguments are optional. They are:

	Options -- one or more options as listed below
	Script -- a script file to run
	Args -- arguments passed to the script 

Typically, you will provide REBOL with the name of the script
file that you want to evaluate. For instance, to run a script
called script.r, type:

	REBOL script.r

To run the script with an option, such as the -s option that
lowers the security level, write a line such as:

	REBOL -s script.r

The dash (-) is used for single-character options. A double dash
(--) is used for a full-word options. This is standard practice
in many operating systems.  For instance, to obtain usage
information about REBOL, you can type either of these lines:

	REBOL -?
	REBOL --help

When the script name is followed by additional words and
values, they are passed to the script as arguments. The
arguments are passed to the script in the SYSTEM/SCRIPT
object. For example, the command line arguments:

	REBOL script.r test 1234

can be printed with a line such as:

	probe system/script/args

If no script arguments are provided, a NONE is returned.

You can also use a "--" followed by no word to signal the end of
command line and pass remaining values to REBOL as script
arguments:

	REBOL -- example 1234

Because no script file is provided in this example, it is
assumed that you have a default script specified in your user.r
file. See below.

More about starting REBOL can be found in the <A
HREF="http://www.rebol.com/docs/core23/rebolcore-2.html"><B>Operation
Chapter</B></A> of the <I>REBOL/Core User's Guide</I>.

---Running in CGI Mode

When you use REBOL for CGI scripts, you will need to provide a
special -c option to tell REBOL to read the CGI environment
variables. For example, the line below:

	REBOL -c cgi-script.r

runs the script in CGI mode.

If you also want to run your REBOL CGI script so it can write
output files, you will need to lower the default security with
the -s option. This command does the job:

	REBOL -cs cgi-script.r

For many types of web servers (such as Apache), you can create
CGI shell scripts that include both the command line and the
script itself. Here is an example of how it is done:

	#!/home/user/rebol -cs
	REBOL [Title: "CGI Script"]
	print "content-type: text/html^/"
	print [
		<HTML><BODY>
		"Now is:" now
		<PRE>
		mold system/options/cgi
		</PRE>
		</BODY></HTML>
	]

When accessed from a web browser via CGI, this example will
print the date and time followed by the CGI environment object
(which lets you see all the information that the web server has
passed to you.)

Be sure that the script and REBOL have the necessary permissions
for your operating system (e.g. Unix file mode 755).

More about CGI operation can be found in the <A
HREF="http://www.rebol.com/docs/core23/rebolcore-13.html"><B>Networking
Chapter</B></A> of the <I>REBOL/Core User's Guide</I>.

---Startup Scripts

When REBOL starts it will automatically run the rebol.r and
user.r files, if they exist.

The system looks for these files first in the current directory