Found this in my notes:
REXX History
REXX(REstructured eXtended eXecutor) is an interpreted programming
language (
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/programming+language )
which was developed at IBM, and several implementations are available
under open source (
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/open+source ) licenses. It
is a structured high-level programming language which was designed to be
both easy to learn and easy to read. Both commercial and open source
interpreters (
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Interpreter+%28computing%29
) for REXX are available on a wide range of computing platforms, and
compilers are available for IBM mainframes.
Features
REXX has the following characteristics and features: character string
basis
dynamic data typing (no declarations)
no reserved keywords (except in local context)
arbitrary numerical precision
decimal arithmetic (floating-point)
a rich selection of built-in functions (especially string and word
processing)
automatic storage management
crash protection
content-addressable data structures
straightforward access to system commands and facilities
simple error-handling, and built-in tracing and debugger
few artificial limitations
simplified I/O facilities.
REXX has just twenty-three, largely self-evident, instructions (e.g.,
call, parse, and select) with minimal punctuation and formatting
requirements. It is essentially an almost free-form language (
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/free-form+language ) with
only one data-type, the character string; this philosophy means that all
data are visible (symbolic) and debugging and tracing are simplified.
REXX syntax looks similar to PL/I (
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/PL%2FI ), but has fewer
notations; this makes it harder to parse (by program) but easier to use.
History
REXX was designed and first implemented as an ‘own-time’ project
between 20 March 1979 (
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/1979 )
and mid-1982 (
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/1982 ) by Mike
Cowlishaw (
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Mike+Cowlishaw )
of IBM, originally as a scripting programming language to replace the
languages EXEC and EXEC 2. It was designed to be a macro (
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/macro ) or scripting
language for any system. As such, REXX is considered a precursor to Tcl
(
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Tcl ) and Python (
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Python+programming+language
).
It was first described in public at the SHARE 56 conference in Houston,
Texas, in 1981 (
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/1981 ), where
customer reaction, championed by Ted Johnston of SLAC, led to it being
shipped as an IBM product in 1982 (
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/1982 ).
Over the years IBM included REXX in almost all of its operating systems
(VM/CMS (
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/VM%2FCMS ), VM/GCS,
MVS TSO/E (
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/MVS ), AS/400 (
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/AS%2F400 ), OS/2 (
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/OS%2F2 ), VSE/ESA, AIX (
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/AIX+operating+system ),
CICS/ESA, and PC-DOS (
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/PC-DOS
)), and has made versions available for Novell Netware (
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Novell+Netware ), Windows (
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Microsoft+Windows ), Java, and
Linux (
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Linux ).
The first non-IBM version was written for PC-DOS (
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/PC-DOS ) by Charles Daney
in 1984/5. Other versions have also been developed for Atari (
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Atari ), Amiga (
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Amiga ), Unix (
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Unix ) (many variants),
Solaris (
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Solaris+Operating+Environment
), DEC (
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Digital+Equipment+Corporation
), Windows (
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Microsoft+Windows
), Windows CE (
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Windows+CE ),
PocketPC, MS-DOS (
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/MS-DOS ),
Palm OS (
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Palm+OS ), QNX (
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/QNX ), OS/2 (
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/OS%2F2 ), Linux (
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Linux ), BeOS (
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/BeOS ), EPOC32, AtheOS (
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/AtheOS ), OpenVMS (
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/OpenVMS ), OpenEdition (
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/OpenEdition ), Macintosh (
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Apple+Macintosh ), and Mac
OS X (
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Mac+OS+X ).
Several freeware versions are available. In 1992 (
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/1992 ), the two most
widely-used open-source ports appeared: Ian Collier's REXX/imc for Unix
and Anders Christensen's Regina (later adopted by Mark Hessling) for
Windows and Linux. BREXX is well-known for WinCE and PocketPC platforms.
In 1996 (
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/1996 ) ANSI
published a standard for REXX: ANSI X3.274–1996 “Information Technology –
Programming Language REXX”. More than two dozen books on REXX have been
published since 1985 (
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/1985 ).
Since the mid-1990s (
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/1990s
), two newer variants of REXX have appeared: NetRexx – which compiles to
Java (
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Java+programming+language )
byte-code (
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/byte-code ) via
Java source code; this has no reserved keywords at all, and uses the
Java object model, and is therefore not upwards-compatible with ‘classic’
REXX
ObjectRexx – which is an object-oriented upwards-compatible version of
REXX.
In 1990 (
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/1990 ), Cathy Dager
of SLAC organized the first independent REXX symposium, which led to the
forming of the REXX Language Association. Symposiums are held annually.
Rexx marked its 25th anniversary on 20 March 2004 (
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/2004 ), which was
celebrated at the REXX Language Association’s 15th International REXX
Symposium in Böblingen, Germany, in May 2004.
On October 12 (
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/October+12 ),
2004 (
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/2004 ), IBM announced
their plan to release their ObjectRexx implementation under the Common
Public License
On February 22 (
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/February+22
), 2005 (
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/2005 ), the first
public release of ooRexx (Open Object Rexx) was announced.
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