Alex deVries <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent by: Linux on 390 Port <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
02/19/2004 12:44 PM
Please respond to Linux on 390 Port
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
cc:
Subject: Re: Just stirring the pot
My background's in C and perl too. And now I'm learning REXX. It seems
to me that there are some programming constructs which I'm used to that
just aren't included in REXX. Such as:
1. pointers, for linked lists, trees, etc
2. complex data types as parameters and return codes:
There are some people who tell me that stem variables are the best thing
ever developed and totally unique to REXX. They seem a lot like
associative arrays in perl to me, without the ability to get a list of
keys.
But... let's say I have a stem variable with multiple tails; the only
way to pass it to a procedure or have the procedure return such a
structure is to make it a global. This is scary if you were brought up
to believe that globals evil.
THAT is mainframe. "Global" is EVIL. I always use 'use strict' and lexical
scoping. When I need the visibility across files, grudgingly use globals.
How I'd love to do:
student._name='Alex'
student._phone='737 1111'
rc=DisplayStudentData(student_.)
DisplayStudentData: Procedure
parse arg mystudent.
say 'Name:' mystudent._name 'Number:' mystudent._phone
return 0
3. syntax checking
Let's say I write:
myname='Alex'
say mynaem /* note the typo */
Running this program would return 'mynaem', not a warning like "variable
mynaem not declared"
But, really, it's just another programming language. They're not really
that different.
- Alex
Ranga Nathan wrote:
> Perl sure has some quirky syntax as some of it is derived from C.
> Scheme is awesome but cryptic. Scheme is even more powerful than Perl,
but
> you have to rise above the mortals, you have to be a geek.
> Python... hmm a language where indentation is part of the syntax?? ..
> Ruby, I hear a lot of good things...
> REXX, I have a lot of good things.... but smells mainframe. I dont like
> any of the mainframe languages. They suffer from history too much.
>
> Sorry, I am strongly opinionated.
>
>
>
>
> David Boyes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
> Sent by: Linux on 390 Port <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> 02/19/2004 11:17 AM
> Please respond to Linux on 390 Port
>
>
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> cc:
> Subject: Re: Just stirring the pot
>
>
>
>>If there is one language I love unequivocally, it is Perl.
>>I like the TIMTOWTDI (tim tow tidi).
>>I have applied it to solve the most difficult problems easily.
>
>
> I don't deny Perl is useful. Larry Wall is considered to be a genius for
a
> number of reasons -- inventing a superior scripting language to csh or
> Bourne scripts is (IMHO) the least of his achievements.
>
> I *do* claim that Perl is unnecessarily syntactically grotesque -- in
all
> the dictionary senses of the word. If IBM had been wise enough to make
> REXX
> freely available at the time Perl was getting started, there were a
number
> of people that really wanted to make REXX widespread. Same thing with
> NetREXX -- IMHO, it's a vastly superior language to Java -- but IBM
> wouldn't
> let it fly free at the time it would have made a difference. Thus we're
> stuck with Java, a language that propagates the worst features of C
*and*
> C++, and fixes few to none of the flaws of either. Another thing to have
> to
> beat out of the new CS grads when they get to the Real World and have to
> learn how to write maintainable code. I'd really like to find out who
> thought teaching Scheme as the only real programming language in many of
> the
> local CS curricula was a good idea...
>
> (my, I am getting cranky in my old age...bad morning, I guess. We're out
> of
> coffee. grr.)
>
> PHP and Python are somewhat better, but REXX is far cleaner and far
easier
> to understand at a glance (and teach to normal mortals with real jobs
> other
> than computing) than any of the other three, IMHO. I always considered
the
> System Product Interpreter Users Guide one of the best self-teaching
> manuals
> ever written -- *any* random yo-yo can learn enough REXX to be useful
from
> that book.
>
> Too late now, but if only things had been different....
>
>
> -- db
>
>
--
Alex deVries
Principal Architect, One Fish Two
