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From: bleys@tronsbox.xei.com (Bill Cavanaugh)
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.rexxlist,comp.lang.rexx
Subject: Re: "Why REXX Died" by Robert O'Hara
Message-ID: <1638@tronsbox.xei.com>
Date: 22 May 91 23:44:58 GMT
Article-I.D.: tronsbox.1638
References: <91136.075342CATHIE@SLACVM.SLAC.STANFORD.EDU> <103335@becker.UUCP>
Followup-To: bit.listserv.rexxlist
Organization: Xanadu Enterprises, Inc.
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In article <103335@becker.UUCP> bdb@becker.UUCP (Bruce D. Becker) writes:
>In article <91136.075342CATHIE@SLACVM.SLAC.STANFORD.EDU> CATHIE@SLACVM.SLAC.STANFORD.EDU (Cathie Dager) writes:
>|
>|I was pleased to see the interest in Bob O'Hara's "Why REXX Died" talk.  It
>|was given first at the REXX Symposium for Developers and Users in June, 1990
>|at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center.  We are grateful to Scott Ophof for
>|the electronic version which is here posted with permission:
>|
>| The views expressed in this presentation are the author's alone and not
>| those of Lotus Development Corporation.
>|
>|  WHY REXX DIED (A Retrospective)
>|  ===============================
>|
>|    1979  MFC begins work on REXX
>|    1983  VM/SP 3 released
>|    1984  "Modern Programming Using REXX" published
>|    1985  "The REXX Language" published
>|    1985  Personal REXX for MS-DOS from Mansfield Software released
>|    1987  REXX designated IBM SAA Procedures Language

I'm not sure of the year, but REXX became the second (and preferred)
procedure language under MVS right around '87.  Anyone who's ever tried
to do anything useful with a CLIST can understand why!

>|    1989  REXX removed from OS/2 Standard Edition
>|    1990  IBM OS/2 1.2 Extended Edition released
>
>     1991  AREXX distributed as part of AmigaDos 2.0
>

[stuff deleted]

>
>	Microsoft has NO influence in the Commodore
>	Amiga world. The REXX implementation is mostly
>	"vanilla", and many programs & applications
>	are being retrofitted to communicate with its
>	resources. At some point in the near future
>	there will be some reasonable support for
>	hetergenous system communication thru AREXX,
>	so all REXX users should benefit from that...

MS has NO influence in the IBM mainframe world, either.  The assumption
that REXX is dead because Billionaire Bill doesn't want it around is
erroneous...
-- 
 *         Bill Cavanaugh       bleys@tronsbox.xei.com          *
 *                                                              *
 *       Who woulda thought that by staying in one place        *
 *                 I'd become a refugee?                        *
 *                                                              *
 *                             Doug and the Slugs               *