GeezerVison

Red
Red Logo: a stylized rectangular Tower of Hanoi
Paradigm	Multi-paradigm: imperative, functional, symbolic
Family	Rebol
Designed by	Nenad Rakočević[1]
Developer	Nenad Rakočević
First appeared	February 2011 (2011-02)
Stable release	0.6.6[2] (Beta) / March 19, 2025 (2025-03-19)
Implementation language	Rebol, Red
Platform	ARM, x86
OS	Unix-like: Android, Linux, macOS; Windows
License	BSD 3-clause, Boost
Filename extensions	.red, .reds
Website	www.red-lang.org
Influenced by
Rebol, Lisp, Scala, Lua

Red is a programming language designed to overcome the limits of the programming language Rebol.^[3] Red was introduced in 2011 by Nenad Rakočević,^[4] and is both an imperative and functional programming language. Its syntax and general usage overlaps that of the interpreted Rebol language.^[5]

The implementation choices of Red intend to create a full stack programming language:^[4][6] Red can be used for extremely high-level programming (domain-specific languages (DSLs) and graphical user interfaces (GUIs) and low-level programming (operating systems and device drivers). Key to the approach is that the language has two parts: Red/System and Red.^[7]

• Red/System is similar to C, but packaged into a Rebol lexical structure – for example, one would write if x > 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.^[3][8] 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.^[3] It is therefore possible to cross-compile^[6] 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".^[9]

Red was introduced in the Netherlands in February 2011 at the Rebol & Boron conference^[10] by its author Nenad Rakočević. In September 2011, the Red programming language was presented to a larger audience during the Software Freedom Day 2011.^[11][12] Rakočević is a long-time Rebol developer known as the creator of the Cheyenne HTTP server.^[13]

Red's syntax and semantics are very close to those of Rebol.^[4][14] 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.^[7] Red is easy to integrate with other tools and languages as a dynamic-link library (DLL) (libRed) and very lightweight (around 1 MB). 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).^[7] 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.

The following is the list of Red's Goals as presented on the Software Freedom Day 2011:^[11][12]

• Simplicity ("An IDE should not be necessary to write code.")
• Compactness ("Being highly expressive maximizes productivity.")
• Speed ("If too slow, it cannot be general-purpose enough.")
• Be "Green", Have a Small Footprint ("Because resources are not limitless.")
• Ubiquity ("Spread everywhere.")
• Portability, Write once run everywhere ("That's the least expected from a programming language.")
• Flexibility ("Not best but good fit for any task!")

The following commercial applications are currently developed on Red:

• DiaGrammar^[15] – Live coded diagramming
• SmartXML^[16] – XML parsing tool

Red's development is planned to be in two phases:

1. Initial phase: Red and Red/System compilers written in Rebol 2
2. Bootstrap phase: Red and Red/System compilers complemented by a Red just-in-time compilation (JIT) compiler, all written in Red.

As of 2018, supported cross-compiling targets include:^[4]

• DOS: Windows, x86, console (and GUI) applications
• Windows: Windows, x86, GUI applications
• Linux: Linux, x86
• Linux-ARM: Linux, ARMv5, armel (soft-float)
• Raspberry Pi: Linux, ARMv5, armhf (hard-float)
• FreeBSD: x86
• Darwin: macOS Intel, console (and GUI) applications
• Android: Android, ARMv5
• Android-x86: Android, x86

(As of 2018, Red applications are 32-bit. Plans are to move to 64-bit in future.^[4])

• Comparison of programming languages
• History of programming languages
• List of programming languages
• List of programming languages by type

• Balbaert, Ivo (May 2018). Learn Red - Fundamentals of Red. Packt Publishing. ISBN 978-1789130706.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Red (programming language).

• Official website
• Latest builds from official website
• Red on GitHub
• Redprogramming.com
• Helpin' Red Archived 2021-09-28 at the Wayback Machine