- NetRexx
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NetRexx Paradigm(s) multiparadigm: object-oriented, procedural, structured Appeared in 1996 Designed by Mike Cowlishaw Developer Mike Cowlishaw Stable release 2.05 (January 14, 2005) Typing discipline Static, strong, safe, partly dynamic, everything is a string (for the Rexx data type, which handles strings and numbers) Major implementations IBM NetRexx[1] Influenced by PL/I, EXEC 2, BASIC, Java NetRexx is IBM's variant of the REXX programming language to run on the Java virtual machine.[2] It supports a classic REXX syntax, with no reserved keywords, along with considerable additions to support object-oriented programming in a manner compatible with Java's object model, yet can be used as both a compiled and an interpreted language, with an option of using only data types native to the JVM or the NetRexx runtime package. The latter offers the standard Rexx data type that combines string processing with unlimited precision decimal arithmetic. Integration with the JVM platform is tight, and all existing Java class libraries can be used unchanged and without special setup; at the same time, a Java programmer can opt to just use the Rexx class from the runtime package for improved string handling in Java syntax source programs.
The syntax and object model of NetRexx differ from Object REXX, another IBM object-oriented variant of REXX which has been released as open source software.
NetRexx is free to download from IBM. The Rexx Language Association[3] has announced that "RexxLA and IBM are currently in negotiations for turning over the source code and project materials to RexxLA" under the headline "NetRexx to be Open Source!" IBM announced the transfer of NetRexx 3.00 source code to the Rexx Language Association (RexxLA) on June 8, 2011. RexxLA is preparing it for public release of the source as 3.01 in the future.
History
In 1995 Mike Cowlishaw ported Java to OS/2 and soon after started with an experiment to run REXX on the JVM. With REXX generally considered the first of the general purpose scripting languages,[4] NetRexx is the first alternative language for the JVM.[5] The 0.50 release, from April 1996, contained the NetRexx runtime classes and a translator written in REXX but tokenized and turned into an OS/2 executable.[6] The 1.00 release came available in January 1997 and contained a translator bootstrapped to NetRexx. Release 2.00 became available in August 2000 and was a major upgrade, in which interpreted execution was added.[7]
Mike Cowlishaw left IBM in March 2010[8], and the future of IBM NetRexx as open source was unknown for a while. IBM finally announced the transfer of NetRexx source code to the Rexx Language Association (RexxLA) on June 8, 2011, 14 years after the v1.0 release.[9]
References
- ^ IBM NetRexx
- ^ Cowlishaw, M. F., The NetRexx Language, Prentice-Hall, 1997, ISBN 0-13-806332-X
- ^ RexxLA.org, The Rexx Language Association
- ^ Scott, Michael L., Programming Language Pragmatics, second edition, ISBN 0-12-633951-1, p.694
- ^ Chip Davis, email exchange <4B65D1BF.1030008@aresti.com>, <OF2F8950A4.D53C8EE6-ON802576BD.002C13BA-802576BD.002D2B65@uk.ibm.com>
- ^ EWS Site, Collection of IBM Employee written software from the 1990s
- ^ NetRexx Change History, IBM NetRexx Site
- ^ Mike Cowlishaw, public email to NetRexx mailing list<AEB36250BC494005BAC4767B3EE591DC@MFCX200>
- ^ René Jansen,email to NetRexx Mailing List<1496987A-5293-41EA-B88A-56B1B51B7B55@xs4all.nl>
External links
- Official NetRexx website
- IBM NetRexx information and download page
- NetRexx Tutorial from JDJ magazine
- Updated (2009) NetRexx 2 Manual from Mike Cowlishaw´s webpage
- Kednos' NetRexx on OpenVMS page
Categories:- IBM software
- Object-oriented programming languages
- Programming language topic stubs
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