rokicki@rocky.STANFORD.EDU (Tomas Rokicki) (02/06/88)
Looks like ARexx is taking off! More and more programs are hooking into it. AmigaTeX uses ARexx to provide an essentially integrated environment for TeX (your previewed document is only a keystroke and a few seconds away from your editor). Now, neither ARexx nor the editor is supplied, but a surprisingly large number of people with AmigaTeX already have ARexx. Editors which support ARexx are Charlie Heath's TxED, my version of mg1b, and someone else's version of DME. Just for information: ARexx has three main uses in my opinion. The first is as a general purpose scripting language for AmigaDOS. It's fast, it's efficient, it supports all types of control constructs and data types. (That's its main use on the IBM mainframes.) The second is as a general macro language for any program. This way, to add programmability to an application, you only need add an ARexx port (simplicity itself) and a handful of primitive operations. The third application, and my favorite, is a general interprocess communication manager. If you want seven programs to all talk to each other, you need to write 7*6 or 42 interfaces and all the appropriate code. Instead, simply write a single ARexx interface for each, and do all your communication through ARexx! This is what the IBM PS/2 people are working towards, and it already exists largely on the Amiga; let's make use of it. ARexx is an incredible deal at its current price of $50. Bill Hawes is at Box 308, Maynard, MA~~01754, (617) 568-8695. Tom Rokicki is at Box 2081, Stanford, CA~~94309, (415) 326-5312. -tom