I had high hopes for REXX when I first saw it and we all hoped it would be an extension of APL2. It indeed works very well together with APL2 but it was not as good together with APL2 at the time as we hoped in the very beginning.
I have always liked REXX and use ooRexx and want to use it more. http://www.oorexx.org/ 2009/3/20 Boyko Bantchev <[email protected]> > 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 > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > -- Björn Helgason, Verkfræðingur Fugl&Fiskur ehf, Þerneyjarsundi 23, Hraunborgum Po Box 127,801 Selfoss , t-póst: [email protected] gsm: +3546985532 Landslags og skrúðgarðagerð, gröfuþjónusta http://groups.google.com/group/J-Programming Tæknikunnátta höndlar hið flókna, sköpunargáfa er meistari einfaldleikans góður kennari getur stigið á tær án þess að glansinn fari af skónum /|_ .-----------------------------------. ,' .\ / | Með léttri lund verður | ,--' _,' | Dagurinn í dag | / / | Enn betri en gærdagurinn | ( -. | `-----------------------------------' | ) | (\_ _/) (`-. '--.) (='.'=) ♖♘♗♕♔♙ `. )----' (")_(") ☃☠ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
