There's something amazing about the fact that the entire Red system, including GUI framework, parser DSL, runtime, and compiler for a C-like language (Red/System) is smaller than the average webpage. (Red—the entire thing—is a single 946kb executable (on Windows).)
Also, if you haven't tried a Rebol-like language (Rebol, Rebol 3, Red, etc) you should definitely do so. Rebol was originally created by Carl Sassenrath, who wrote the original AmigaOS kernel. It's a very fun and sensible little language.
Yes, the size is mind boggling for what it provides.
I am keeping an eye on Red for my game programming. I think it still needs some library work from my last play with it. I would need OpenGL/Webgl, io, and sound support along the lines of what SDL2 provides.
I am a Lisper, and recently have been playing with NetLogo for simulations, so Red's syntax looks friendly to me, but I have not really done anything in it yet.
Incredible, if I could make a game and distribute the Red/System with it, and still be smaller than most of my other setups (C using Raylib, Love2D, etc...). Also writing DSLs in Red so the user can mod levels or gameplay AI would be really cool!
I've known and have paid attention to Red for a while. I don't know my opening to get into it as a user, though, so I'm still very "wait and see." The progress looks good, though.
I'm in the same boat. I typically check the Red website and Twitter page a few times a month for updates. I think it could be production worthy in a couple of years for a lot of uses. I read an interview Nenad (think the creator's name) did a couple of years ago and agreed with him on so many levels.
For those of you who have not been following along at home (like me), here is a description of the Red programming language from the about page[1]:
Red is a next-gen programming language, strongly inspired by REBOL. Main features are:
* Homoiconic (Red is its own meta-language and own data-format)
* Functional, imperative, reactive and symbolic programming
* Prototype-based object support
* Gradual and multi-typing
* Rich set of built-in datatypes (50+)
* Both statically and JIT-compiled to native code
* Cross-compilation done right.
* Produces executables of less than 1MB, with no dependencies.
* Concurrency and parallelism strong support (actors, parallel collections)
* Low-level system programming abilities through the built-in Red/System DSL
* Powerful PEG parser DSL
* Cross-platform native GUI system, with a UI DSL and drawing DSL.
* Bridging to the JVM
* High-level scripting and REPL console included
* Highly embeddable
* Low memory footprint, garbage collected
* Single-file (~1MB) contains whole toolchain, standard library and REPL.
* No install
* Fun, guaranteed. ;-)
Red is one of those languages that I forget about until a story like this comes along, and then I'm reminded how much I want it to mature to 1.0. Looks like full I/O support will be probably be released in the next 12 months or so, which will really open up some interesting opportunities. (The Rx capabilities in the current version mean that the only thing holding me back from using it in a professional capacity is the lack of an OSX GUI backend.)
You also forget that according to their roadmap core concepts like garbage collection, actor model, I/O are to be implemented after most of the language and libraries are there.
Seeing how those three things deeply impact each other and everything in the language and the libraries, one is left to wonder...
After some experience with Factor (a very interesting concatenative language with great C FFI support), I think Red is the next exciting language for me to try. Just waiting for the I/O module. :)
You forgot case-insensitive string comparisons by default. I'm still trying to decide if I like that default. Ultimately it's a small thing that doesn't really matter though.
Also, if you haven't tried a Rebol-like language (Rebol, Rebol 3, Red, etc) you should definitely do so. Rebol was originally created by Carl Sassenrath, who wrote the original AmigaOS kernel. It's a very fun and sensible little language.