28 Jan
1998
28 Jan
'98
3:30 a.m.
REXX on a PC?
I think I have heard (very dimly) of this (there was
something called REXX-88 or some such name when I was at IBM) but I
haven't used REXX for years! What does it run on? Will it run on a
Compaq 386? An IBM AT?
You can probably find REXX in a lot of places...
There's even a shareware
version on Macintosh. And if there's an old IBM programming language on a
Mac, it's almost definitley on a lot of other platforms. Did REXX start on
the IBM mini/mainframes or is it from somewhere else? Has anyone seen a
copy of Cobol for Mac? MicroFocus used to make it, but it seems the Cobol
crowd has abondoned Macintosh... 
28 Jan
28 Jan
9:54 a.m.
;-) Clearing the snow from my glasses, I saw Philip.Belben(a)powertech.co.uk
typed:
[nip about REXX]
REXX is/was
quite a nice language to use, but some features rendered it unsuitable
for serious programming - numbers, for example, are stored as strings of
digits in the character code of the machine you are using...
Uh, Sir Philip?
Maybe there are other reasons that your statement of unsuitability stands,
but I can think of one programming language that's very handy (& powerful &
serious) which stores it's digits as charcter codes: Perl. From experience
I can tell you that one heckuva lot more stuff gets done with Perl on the
WWW than Java -- and it's a lot easier to pgm. in.
Guess what! This is still ontopic for this list... there's a version of
Java for almost every 16-bit or higher machine available -- including a
native version that runs on an Atari ST... (version 4.035 and I think you
need a meg to run it -- I've done it!)
Anyway, have fun!
Roger "Merch" Merchberger
--
Roger Merchberger | If at first you don't succeed,
Programmer, NorthernWay | nuclear warhead disarmament should *not*
zmerch(a)northernway.net | be your first career choice.
1:46 p.m.
OS/2 Warp was 386, as I recall. 2.1, I can't remember, 1.2 was 286.
You might need a 386 for the Program Manager, But I don't recall. I
still have copies of 2.1 and 1.2, if you need to know....
-Mike
Philip.Belben(a)powertech.co.uk wrote:
Thanks everyone for their help. I shall sometime consider PC-DOS with
REXX as an environment for my AT or possibly one of my Compaqs... Am I
right in thinking that OS/2 _won't_ run on an AT?
ORIGINS OF REXX
I met REXX in what I believe to be its native habitat - as the macro
language for VM/CMS running on an IBM 370 descendant mainframe. It
replaced a language called EXEC2, whose main distinguishing feature was
% signs everywhere (although I can't remember what they meant). This in
turn replaced a language called (you guessed it) EXEC. REXX is/was
quite a nice language to use, but some features rendered it unsuitable
for serious programming - numbers, for example, are stored as strings of
digits in the character code of the machine you are using...
Philip.
REXX on a
PC? I think I have heard (very dimly) of this (there was
something called REXX-88 or some such name when I was at IBM) but I
haven't used REXX for years! What does it run on? Will it run on a
Compaq 386? An IBM AT?
You can probably find REXX in a lot of places...
There's even a shareware
version on Macintosh. And if there's an old IBM programming language on a
Mac, it's almost definitley on a lot of other platforms. Did REXX start on
the IBM mini/mainframes or is it from somewhere else? Has anyone seen a
copy of Cobol for Mac? MicroFocus used to make it, but it seems the Cobol
crowd has abondoned Macintosh...
9826
days inactive
9826
days old
2 comments
3 participants
participants (3)
-
mallison＠konnections.com -
Philip.Belben＠powertech.co.uk -
zmerch＠northernway.net