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From: brooking@mcnc.org (James A. Brooking)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.rexx
Subject: Re: UNIX REXX makes sense
Summary: More Encouragement for a unix Version of REXX
Message-ID: <4678@alvin.mcnc.org>
Date: 9 Jun 89 12:43:35 GMT
References: <7800001@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Organization: Microelectronics Center of NC; RTP, NC
Lines: 53

In article <7800001@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>, phil@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu writes:
> 
> A UNIX version of REXX would make sense.  It may not be everyone's favorite
> language, but it does have some powerful capabilities.
> 
  ...
 
> --Phil howard--  <phil@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>

I manage a Cray installation (X-MP/28) which runs UNICOS,
the Cray unix variant.  We also support a number of unix-
based workstations (SUN, SGI) and a few dozen VAXen of 
various flavors.

Previously I worked at a small, family-owned business
(GE) as a sort of chief VM guru, where I first encountered
REXX.  I'm here to tell you that REXX is an invaluable tool
for "front-ending" code with poor user interfaces (although
we all know there isn't much of THAT around...) and replacing
ill-conceived command names or calling arguments by something
fit for human consumption.  It also very useful, as other
articles have mentioned, for prototyping. And in fact, at least
in a VM environment where the REXX interpreter is quite
efficient, the prototype can become the production version
with a clear conscience.

Others may have mentioned as well, that REXX (at least in
the VM and MS-DOS (Mansfield Software versions) has an
excellent debugging facility. This, in combination with
the language's inherent ease of learning and use, makes
for a development tool that MAKES ITS USERS LOOK GOOD!
REXX programmers (at least this one) can generate debugged
code at an unheard-of rate.

My favorite story is about a task assigned to a "C"
programmer and me to create a  generic batch facility
by developing cooperative processes on the 3081 (me, REXX)
and a SUN workstation (him, "C"). His client software
took a couple of months to "complete" (it was still 
kind of buggy, in the style of unix). Mine took a week,
and hasn't been touched in the three years since it was
written.

The point is that a REXX capability for unix (preferably
portable to UNICOS) and for VAX/VMS would be a very
welcome capability in my shop... I'd pay well for it.

'Nuff said. 

					Jim Brooking
					Technology Applications, Inc.
					(401)841-5354
					brooking@nusc.navy.mil