I consider myself to be very fortunate to have written the
first Rex (as it was known then) program outside of the
U.K. Back then, Rex was IBM Internal Use Only and
distributed over IBM's VNET. I did a lot of Tools work at
Research Triangle Park and quickly realized the advantages
of Rex over EXEC2 and decided that *all* my new tools would
be written in Rex. The transition was invisible to everyone
that used my tools and I was much more productive!
When it became Rexx and part of the VM Product, I knew Mike
had improved the productivity of countless programmers and
VM users throughout the world!
I don't think it is likely that we'll see any changes to
Rexx on the mainframe. It's a Mature Product and the only
thing I know of that's missing is ANSI compatibility. Of
course I've been retired from IBM for some years and could
of missed something.
Mike made the latter part of my career as a programmer the
most enjoyable part of programming! This from a guy who
told my first manager, after I became a programmer writing
360 assembler and got a pay raise: It would be cheaper if
IBM paid my mortgage, car payment and bought us groceries.
Mike may be leaving IBM but all of us in RexxLA will always
benefit from Rexx and his dedication to it.
Les
Veilleux, Jon L wrote:
I remember when we switched our VM from EXEC to REXX back in the 80's. What a
change!!!! Now I do all of my work on z/OS, but I still use REXX almost
exclusively. I hope that REXX continues to enhance it's capabilities...
Jon L. Veilleux
[email protected]
(860) 636-9179
________________________________
From: The IBM z/VM Operating System [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf
Of Bob Bolch
Sent: Friday, February 19, 2010 10:07 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: End of an era
I consider myself very fortunate that I am able to do REXX programming every
day.... and be paid for it! My appreciation for Mike's contributions to all of
us is widely shared, but we VMers got to appreciate what he has done way
before anyone else.
Bob Bolch
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