[greggirwin]

Automated builds are the way to go. We're revamping our release process to avoid stale-binary syndrome. If you don't follow us on Gitter, where you'll see active chat every day, you can look at https://progress.red-lang.org/ to see what's been done. Or just look at github graphs of commits.

We absolutely lost some focus with the blockchain aspect, and are rolling with all the punches as best we can. Sustainability is key, so we're also working on commercial products to that end. Got our first one out last year, and the next one is in the planning stages.

Our first product is https://www.redlake-tech.com/products/diagrammar-for-windows..., and all features are enabled for free. The only limitation is that exported images are watermarked. We also sponsor licenses for other FOSS projects.

[olah_1]

The problem with going off of commits is that if someone doesn’t follow every week, they are likely to miss what is happening.

The only place I go to see updates for projects is Releases (or a changelog file).

Maybe a nice middle ground is simply writing more blog posts? I believe this comment from the blog sums it up very well:

> The last post here was April 20 and on Twitter Red-lang, Oct 20, of last year. Never feel like the teams posts must be somewhat ground breaking or totally exciting to the general reader/supporter. We and new interested parties must see you are still supporting your own vision or like a slow loading web page they'll be forced to move on.

https://www.red-lang.org/2020/08/redsystem-new-features.html...

[7thaccount]

Diagrammar looks interesting. Is there enough demand for it though? Wish y'all the best!

[greggirwin]

That's what we're trying to find out. :^) In many ways it is a guinea pig, and something we wanted for ourselves. Very niche, to be sure, but if you've ever had to write grammars, the alternatives are EMACS/VIM + YACC/Bison or XText if you're in the Java world and can be locked in and handle the weight.

It's funny to me what a tough sell it is, but that's true for all new dev tools. While the main purpose is to help anyone, whatever grammar they choose (ABNF, EBNF, etc.), it all compiles down to Red `parse` internally, so if you use Red, your parser is already done. If you use the native `parse` rules to begin with, you can even include actions. Testing in it is cool too. But really it's to try and get people to see that documenting your design (meaning you have a design to begin with), is valuable.

[neolog]

It seems pretty similar to this free one

https://github.com/GuntherRademacher/rr

[greggirwin]

They generate the same type of syntax diagram, but are otherwise...quite different. If you read the product page it should hit the high points.

[neolog]

See also https://bottlecaps.de/rr/ui

[greggirwin]

Those are the same project.