2009/3/20 Raul Miller <[email protected]>: > On Fri, Mar 20, 2009 at 8:43 AM, Boyko Bantchev <[email protected]> wrote: >> 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. > > I think you should include unix shell scripts in this category.
I did not include the Unix family of sh-like languages, because they cannot be used the way REXX can be, and is being used. REXX comes with an API, through which one can call script chunks from within a compiled program and pass data between the script and the program. Also, most Unix shells are not full-featured languages (lacking, e.g., f.p. arithmetic). REXX is. Tcl and Lua might be the closest analogues to REXX w.r.t. the way they are used, both being designed as program libraries as much as programming languages as such. In CP/CMS, by integrating the o.s., the XEDIT text editor, and REXX, lots of windowed, TUI-enabled software used to be written. XEDIT provided the TUI, while REXX was the tool to glue together the whole thing, including calling and interacting with other compiled programs and programming in REXX itself. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
