There is a mainframe mailing list named ibm-main where from time to time there are discussions about
Rexx and ooRexx.
In the course of an e-mail exchange David Crayford attempted to port ooRexx to z/OS yesterday and
came up with the following remarks in that context:
-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: Re: Ad TCP/Socket programs in REXX (Re: Mainframe REXX (Re:
Badmouthing Rexx and
ooRexx - again (Re: zOSMF and zOWE for non-mainframers
Date: Tue, 7 Mar 2023 15:45:41 +0800
From: David Crayford
Reply-To: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <ibm-m...@listserv.ua.edu>
To: ibm-m...@listserv.ua.edu
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.ibm-main
On 7/3/23 02:39, Rony G. Flatscher wrote:
On 06.03.2023 02:43, David Crayford wrote:
I'm sure your BSF4ooRexx is a really nice library. But it's moot point
talking about it on
this forum because ooRexx has not been ported to z/OS, I'm sorry to say
that I think it
probably never will be.
That would be unfortunate and actually a little bit unprofessional if other
non-IBM-invented
and great software gets ported to it. OTOH seeing the FUDding towards
ooRexx it is not a
surprise, keeping everyone in the wait-and-see room (the purpose of FUD
marketing).
Unless, of course, there is a REXX enthusiast who has the time and skills
to do the port. I
can tell you from experience, it's not easy.
Your experience stems from the days where ooRexx was coded to be 32-bit
only, with quite a few
hacks from its history at IBM (written originally at a time where C++ was
not yet
standardized, every company had its own C++ (pre-)compiler, then the need
to have it run on
OS/2, AIX, Windows and the like).
In the meantime the kernel got totally rewritten and the build system
changed from autotools
to CMake, making it possible to create ports of ooRexx with any bitness and
operating system
targets quickly.
I did notice that CMake is being used for the build. That's good as IBM have
ported CMake to
z/OS. It's hidden away on a personal Github repo by an ex-IBMer who used to
work in the Java JIT
team. I may mention that to IBM.
Anyway, I digress. ooRexx still have the same portability issues as before.
For example, it
assumes that 'phread_t' is a integer. On z/OS, System i, BSD etc it's an
opaque type, a struct.
In file included from
/u/ts8004/git/ooRexx/common/platform/unix/SysSemaphore.hpp:51:
/u/ts8004/git/ooRexx/common/platform/unix/SysThread.hpp:70:36: error: no
matching constructor
for initialization of 'pthread_t'
SysThread() : attached(false), _threadID(0) { ; }
^ ~
/usr/include/sys/types.h:300:19: note: candidate constructor (the implicit
copy constructor) not
viable: no known conversion from 'int' to 'const pthread_t' for 1st argument
typedef struct {
^
/usr/include/sys/types.h:300:19: note: candidate constructor (the implicit
move constructor) not
viable: no known conversion from 'int' to 'pthread_t' for 1st argument
/usr/include/sys/types.h:300:19: note: candidate constructor (the implicit
default constructor)
not viable: requires 0 arguments, but 1 was provided
In file included from
/u/ts8004/git/ooRexx/rexxapi/client/ClientMessage.cpp:41:
In file included from
/u/ts8004/git/ooRexx/rexxapi/client/LocalAPIManager.hpp:47:
In file included from
/u/ts8004/git/ooRexx/common/platform/unix/SysSemaphore.hpp:51:
/u/ts8004/git/ooRexx/common/platform/unix/SysThread.hpp:86:17: error: cannot
convert 'pthread_t'
to 'uintptr_t' (aka 'unsigned long') without a conversion operator
return (uintptr_t)_threadID;
^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
/u/ts8004/git/ooRexx/common/platform/unix/SysThread.hpp:89:37: error: cannot
convert 'pthread_t'
to 'size_t' (aka 'unsigned long') without a conversion operator
inline size_t hash() { return (((size_t)_threadID) >> :sunglasses: *
37; }
IBM warns about this in it's documentation
https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/i/7.1?topic=ssw_ibm_i_71/apis/concep17.html
Amazon have been fixing this bug in their C SDK
https://github.com/awslabs/aws-c-io/issues/217
There also appears to be bugs in SysThread where the "attached" member
variable is not
initialized in the constructor that takes a pthread_t argument.
... cut ...
Would someone be willing to tackle this?
After all, to get a proof of concept port to z/OS will definitely help a full
port to that platform.
---
David Crayford promotes Lua (<http://lua-users.org/lists/lua-l/2013-08/msg00517.html>) and Python on
the mainframe over REXX (and ooRexx). OTOH he seems to be technically interested and curious in
various programming languages and many years ago obviously tried to port ooRexx to the mainframe to
no avail. He works for a company that is specialized in mainframe software.
---rony
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