[comp.lang.rexx] REXX -- what is it?

exspes@gdr.bath.ac.uk (P E Smee) (12/15/89)

I think I'd go as far as saying that REXX is the BEST 'command-script
interpretive' language I have seen in the past 20 years.  (I use it on
VM/CMS.  No, I haven't used every scripting language in the world, so
there may be a good one that I've missed -- but I have used a fair
number.)  It's only a pity that the underlying system (VM/CMS) is by
contrast the most primitive operating system I've seen since OS/8 (on
DEC PDP8's) and PCP (on IBMs).  (Imagine PC-DOS or MS-DOS, but with the
useful bits removed.)

An implementation of REXX running on top of a rich operating system
like Unix would be absolutely the cat's whiskers.  On CMS, the very
fact that REXX is so good serves, by the contrast, to provide a
continual reminder of just how tacky the operating system is.
-- 
Paul Smee, Univ of Bristol Comp Centre, Bristol BS8 1TW, Tel +44 272 303132
 Smee@bristol.ac.uk  :-)  (..!uunet!ukc!gdr.bath.ac.uk!exspes if you MUST)

exspes@gdr.bath.ac.uk (P E Smee) (12/15/89)

In article <1989Dec15.111119.5845@gdt.bath.ac.uk> exspes@gdr.bath.ac.uk (P E Smee) writes:

> <Various nice stuff about REXX, and nasty stuff about VM/CMS, deleted.>

Just for the record, and for personal safety, I better add that (like
ALL my postings) the opinions stated were my own and not those of my
employer.  Additionally (unlike most of my postings) they are personal
views which my management does NOT approve of, appreciate, or
particularly agree with -- which is why I mention it.
-- 
Paul Smee, Univ of Bristol Comp Centre, Bristol BS8 1TW, Tel +44 272 303132
 Smee@bristol.ac.uk  :-)  (..!uunet!ukc!gdr.bath.ac.uk!exspes if you MUST)