2009/3/20 Don Guinn <[email protected]>:
> Mainframe version of REXX is an interpretive language a lot like PLI. All
> numbers were stored in character form.
In fact, all data is text in REXX …
Yes, REXX borrowed some of its syntax and built-in functions
from PL/I, but it is (a-line-at-a-time) interpretive, reflective,
and immensely smaller and simpler than PL/I.
It was created around 1980 as an o.s. command (shell) language,
AND also a system-scripting-and-integration language, long before
the term ‘scripting’ was born and scripting became popular – to
my best knowledge, REXX is the first language of this kind.
Even compared to much later scripting languages, such as Perl,
Python, Ruby, and Tcl, REXX is an amazingly effective tool for
what it was created. For example, it has no regexes, but still
handles a surprisingly many text processing tasks with ease and
elegance. REXX has its limitations and drawbacks, too, but in
general is a great success in language design. That it remained
almost unchanged during its almost 30 years of existence while
being in active use all this time is telling of how well it has
been thought out for its purpose. The only other language having
this property that comes to my mind is C.
Regards,
Boyko
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