[comp.lang.rexx] REXX platform availability

ets@wrkgrp.COM (Edward T Spire) (02/08/91)

>Article 196 in comp.lang.rexx:
>From: rick@ADS.COM (Rick Chestek)
>Subject: Rexx on what platforms?
>
>I'm curious as to what platforms have Rexx implementations available?
>I have it for my amiga, I gather from postings to this newsgroup that
>a VMS version exists;  what others?  (My particular interest/need at
>the moment is for a SUN/UNIX version, but I never know what I'll need
>in the future.....)

The Workstation Group provides uni-REXX for many variants of Unix.
This is a high-performance interpreted REXX, which has been ported to ma
platforms and operating systems.  The only operating environment other t
Unix that we are actively marketing is for VAX/VMS systems.

Here's our understanding of the current REXX vendor community and what
market:

IBM - VM/CMS (original implementation, 370 assembler based)
    - MVS/TSO (port of VM/CMS implementation)
    - OS/2 EE (new implementation, C-based)
    - OS/400 (a port of the OS/2 implementation)
	(The above four ports complete IBM's commitment to provide REXX on all
	"SAA" platforms.  IBM has informally stated that they are considering
	porting REXX (presumably their newer implementation) to DOS/VSE and 
	AIX, but there has been no formal committment to such ports, nor does
	there appear to be serious work in progress in this direction (IMHO.))

Mansfield Software Group - "Personal REXX" for MS/DOS (i.e., PC/DOS), th
	non-IBM implementation of the language to be marketed.

Commodore - "AREXX" for the AmigaDOS environment, originally by Bill Haw
	You are already aware of the amazing popularity of REXX on the Amiga.

The Workstation Group - "uni-REXX" for Unix (most popular platforms are 
	supported), now also available for VAX/VMS, "uni-REXX".

Kilowatt Software - "Portable REXX", originally released for Tandem syst
	now also available for MS/DOS (i.e., PC/DOS), "Portable REXX".

As to language level, many versions implement basically Cowlishaw's 1st 
specification, with some extensions.  A few implementations actually liv
to the 2nd edition specification.  I believe these more modern versions 
OS/2 EE, OS/400, and Portable REXX.

BTW, all these organizationa (along with some "user" organizations) are 
currently working together to formulate an ANSI standard for the REXX la