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Introduced in 2011, Red is an open-source, modern programming language and platform, designed by Nenad Rakocevic.

The goal, in Red, was to overcome the limitations of REBOL, a program, and its syntax and general usage overlap that of REBOL. The developer of Red hoped to reduce the complexity of REBOL's code. The name for the new programming language is short for Red(uced) REBOL.

Its development began with Red/System, a low-level language, similar to C, which is designed to enable programming at the full system level. It can be thought of as an older sibling of Red but, aimed at lower-level programming, it was restricted. Red/System continues to be a part of the Red programming language.

The other part is Red itself, whose semantics are similar to that of REBOL. The runtime library in Red is written in Red/System. It compiles what it can reduce statically, but otherwise uses an embedded interpreter. In ongoing development, the intention is to add a just-in-time compiler for cases in between.

It is possible to cross-compile programs written in Red from any platform that it supports to any other, using a command-line switch. Both Red and Red/System are open-sourced under a modified BSD License.

Another of the goals in Red was to reduce the complexity of a program's code, creating compact runtime environments and dependencies rather than a large amount of Java or .NET code.

After Red was introduced in the Netherlands in 2011, Red's developer foundation grew, each release adding more and more data types, actions, and functions. A REPL interactive coding console was added, along with execution on ARM processors, a parsing engine, a cross-platform GUI dialect, reactive programming, and macros.

In 2015, Fullstack Technologies was formed to continue the development of Red, with the help of a growing community of open-source programmers and contributors.

In 2018, Red began issuing its own cryptocurrency (RED), or the Red Community Token, which is a full-stack open-source toolchain. It can be used to exchange value within the Red community, either as payment for services or contributions.

A proposed dialect of Red called Red/C3 is currently under development, dedicated to blockchain and smart contracts programming.

Since 2018, development of the Red programming language has been managed by the Red Foundation.

The focus of this guide is on Red. Apart from the language itself, appropriate any dialects or versions, compilers, editors, or other tools designed for use with the language, and Red user groups, forums, tutorials, and other resources.

 

 

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