Since a few minutes there is a new beta version of BSF4ooRexx850 available from Sourceforge. If no
show-stopper errors get reported then this version will get released by this year's International
Rexx symposium at the beginning of March in the area auf Brisbane, Australia (consider to offer a
talk with your experiences and expertise of Rexx, NetRexx, ooRexx, BSF4ooRexx on PCs, workstations
or mainframes, cf. <https://www.rexxla.org/document.rsp?base=events&year=2024&doc=cfp>).
About this beta:
BSF4ooRexx850 exploits a Java feature introduced with Java 1.6/6, allowing
to denote an asterisk
(*) in a CLASSPATH path which causes Java to load all jar-/JAR-files in that
directory to
CLASSPATH. As a result one can just copy needed jar files into that
directory and all their Java
classes become available to the ooRexx programs without a need to adjust
CLASSPATH.
If Java gets loaded by Rexx that asterisk needs to be processed by
BSF4ooRexx matching the Java
processing which this new release incorporates and got tested on Windows,
Linux and Apple/Darwin.
On Windows the jar folder's location is at
"%ProgramFiles%\BSF4ooRexx850\lib" on Unix at
"/opt/BSF4ooRexx850/lib". So adding jar-files for ooRexx, just copy them
into that directory and
you can exploit them immediately thereafter (no need to adjust CLASSPATH
anymore).
---
On Windows the .Net support is now adjusted to take advantage of
"ProgramFiles%\BSF4ooRexx850\lib".
Please note: the .Net-support ("CLR", common language runtime) is currently
restricted to Java 8.
(If you need to run newer versions of Java it is still possible to employ
Java 8 - and any other
Java version - in parallel. Just ask if you need help for such a
configuration/setup. One can
define a specific Java to use by defining the environment variable JAVA_HOME
with the path to
the root of the desired Java version.)
---
JDOR (Java2D for ooRexx) has been completed and augmented (e.g. now all HTML
color names can be
used directly). There are numerous small JDOR samples in
BSF4ooRexx850/samples. The
documentation can be located in menu "BSF4ooRexx850 -> Information", then
double-click on the
folder named "jdor", then double-click on the file "jdor_doc.html"
(temporarily it is available
via the Internet from <https://wi.wu.ac.at/rgf/rexx/misc/jdor_doc.tmp/>).
Also there is a short
video demonstrating JDOR at <https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8003114>.
JDOR ("Java Drawing for ooRexx") turns awt's Java2D into very simple, easy
to use Rexx
commands! All such Rexx programs can create any kind of bitmaps that run
*unchanged on all
platforms* where Java and ooRexx are available, notably Windows, Apple and
Linux. It is a good
reason to touch and to play with ooRexx! ;)
With other words: JDOR allows any Rexx programmer to create cool 2D graphics
in a Rexx'ish, i.e.
in a very easy and intuitively understandable way! :-)
---
macOS: there is still a full GUI installer available for macOS which
includes the latest ooRexx
5.1.0beta (of release quality!) and the latest BSF4ooRexx850. The
installation will not get
carried out, if the machine has Rexx installed already (checking for
/usr/local/bin/rexx).
In that case you may want to use the zip archive
(BSF4ooRexx_install_v850-20240109-beta.zip
<https://sourceforge.net/projects/bsf4oorexx/files/beta/20240109/BSF4ooRexx_install_v850-20240109-beta.zip/download>)
to install BSF4ooRexx850 on macOS (in this case it gets installed to
/opt/BSF4ooRexx850 like on
the other Unix installations).
Here the URL to download the latest version of BSF4ooRexx850:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/bsf4oorexx/files/beta/20240109/
The supported platforms out of the box are Linux and Windows in 32-bit and 64-bit, for Intel or ARM,
and for macOS 64-bit for Intel and ARM. The installation of BSF4ooRexx850 will determine the
platform and install the appropriate platform support.
BSF4ooRexx850 is an external Rexx function package for ooRexx that creates a seemless integration
with your installed Java. All of Java becomes Rexx/ooRexx, no need to learn Java at all!
Please check it out and if you find bugs or have questions, then please let us
know!
Enjoy unlimited possibilities with this cool combination in an unmatched
easiness! It'll pay for you!
:-)
---rony
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