As you mention IntelliJ to be used in your shop it may be interesting to know
that there is an
IntelliJ plugin that is capable of doing syntax highlighting for REXX and
ooRexx 5.
Overall the plugin is quite a nice REXX productivity tool available for
IntelliJ and among other
things it makes it easy to copy syntax highlighted REXX code via the clipboard
into slides or word
processors.
As mainframe REXX got frozen in time there are characters in use that TRL2
(Mike Cowlishaw's "The
Rexx Language, 2nd edition") and ANSI REXX do not define and which therefore
get flagged as errors
by the plugin by default. However, to support mainframe REXXers the plugin
author, Alexander Seik (a
former student), allows for a setting that makes these characters valid
characters for REXX symbols
(after installing this plugin into IntelliJ go to Settings -> Languages &
Frameworks -> ooRexx ->
check 'Allow special characters (@,#,¢*,*$)').
Links:
* Latest version of the IntelliJ Plugin, version 2.10 (uploaded last week):
<https://sourceforge.net/projects/bsf4oorexx/files/Sandbox/aseik/ooRexxIDEA/GA/2.1.0/>,
cf. the
readme.txt displayed at that page for instructions on how to install the
plugin
* IntelliJ: <https://www.jetbrains.com/idea/download/>
---rony
P.S.: As a little aside, the plugin makes also the feature available to create
on-the-fly automatic
HTML documentation from "ooRexxDoc" comments (block comments that start with
"/**", note the second
asterisk immediately following the open block comment, which cause all of the
comment to be included
in the generated documentation inspired by the javadoc system) of one ore more
(maybe
interdependent) REXX programs (just do a right mouse click and pick the menu
item "Quick Create
'ooRexxDoc' documentation", add the REXX scripts for which documentation should
be generated). You
may want to look up Alexander Seik's presentation entitled 'The Cross-Platform
Utility "ooRexxDoc"'
: <https://www.rexxla.info/events/2015/schedule.html>
On 05.01.2022 03:47, David Crayford wrote:
> It's true. The company I work for has been on-boarding millennials for years
> now to replace the
> guys that are retiring. I work with some very smart young guys, some of who
> write systems level
> code. None of them use REXX unless it's used in a product they are working
> on. We're ripping and
> replacing decades old build tools written in REXX with Python because it's
> become technical debt
> and no one can support it.
>
> The typical millenial uses:
>
> * An IDE such as VS Code, IntelliJ, Slickedit with plugins for
> mainframe languages and to access the MVS file system.
> * They don't use TSO or the ISPF editor so there is no need for REXX
> edit macros etc. ISPF is mainly used for SDSF and submitting jobs.
> * They work in a interactive shell and use UNIX utilties.
> * Everything is stored in Git repositories.
> * They code scripts in Python, Node.js or a JVM language.
>
>
>
> On 5/1/22 10:06 am, Seymour J Metz wrote:
>> That's David Crayford, not me. I have no basis to either confirm or
>> contradict. It's unfortunate
>> if true.
>>
>>
>> --
>> Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz
>> http://mason.gmu.edu/~smetz3
>>
>> ________________________________________
>> From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU] on behalf of
>> Bob Bridges
>> [robhbrid...@gmail.com]
>> Sent: Tuesday, January 4, 2022 9:03 PM
>> To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU
>> Subject: Re: ... Re: Top 8 Reasons for using Python instead of REXX for z/OS
>>
>> Shmuel, I'm interested (and perhaps a little dismayed) at your third point.
>> I've gotten the
>> impression, from reading ads about job openings, that REXX programmers
>> aren't very thick on the
>> ground even at IBM where you'd think it'd be pretty easy to find them. But
>> "shrinking by the
>> day"? Where do you get that? I'm not disagreeing -- I have no data -- but
>> have you?
>>
>> ---
>> Bob Bridges, robhbrid...@gmail.com, cell 336 382-7313
>>
>> /* Genuine tragedies in the world are not conflicts between right and wrong.
>> They are conflicts
>> between two rights. -Georg Hegel */
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU> On Behalf Of
>> David Crayford
>> Sent: Tuesday, January 4, 2022 19:23
>>
>> 1. IBM are too busy porting contemporary languages like Python, Golang
>> and Node.js
>> 2. No vendor will port ooRexx because there is no market for it that is
>> willing to pay support
>> 3. The pool of REXX developers is shrinking by the day and no young
>> people want to learn it unless they have to
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