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Heh, I loved Forth back in the day. I've written Forth systems for the z80 and for the 68000 processors (for industrial control systems). One was a subroutine threaded multitasking version used as an intermediate language. The development application on the PC would compile to Forth which would than be downloaded to the industrial controller where it would be compiled to machine code. Was definitely a fun project.
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Sometime in the late 80s I was working on a new CICS system for DOS/VSE, written in PLI. I was barely trained in CICS but still the "expert" as far as my team went. I was also the PLI guy, the other programmers were COBOL folks.
I wrote a system in Rexx to run under VM and generate skeleton code for transactions from text descriptions. That got enabled even beginners to create and test dummy transactions with the perspective users, iterating to get the UI to the point where they liked it, learning PLI as they worked with the generated code.
Of course looking at code was how we learned a language back then anyway. We had reference manuals but not books intended to teach the language.
My favorite Rexx feature: uninitialized variables had the value of their name, so there was no such thing as an NRE!
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I used REXX and Watcom's VX-REXX. I really liked VX-rexx and used it in a lot of my OS/2 programming. It was nice as was OS/2 Workplace Shell.
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I used it on my Amiga a few times. Lots of the Amiga applications had a Rexx interface. Once I migrated to Windows I haven't touch Rexx.
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I used it for a telecomms control and billing application I wrote on Amiga. If I remember correctly, I wrote the entire first version of the application in ARexx because the database we were using only had a ARexx API. I remember it having a GUI and everything. It even communicated with serial devices.
I then rewrote most of the application in C++, as it needed a better GUI, and C++ made sense for that. The DB interfacing remained in ARexx so there were plenty of ARexx to maintain. A lot of the business logic existed in ARexx.
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Back in my mainframe days, I wrote some ISPF editor add-ins using REXX.
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I had some fun with Rexx in the early to mid 90's on OS/2. It was ahead of it's time. Enjoyed it far more than batch programming.
I also used a GUI tookit called VX-Rexx to create GUI programs with Rexx on OS/2.
Good times.
- lviolette
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I loved VX-Rexx.
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
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That was a good toolkit. Those were my first GUI programs. All my other programming were C++ console up to that point.
But merging C++, Rexx and VX-Rexx was pretty powerful.
- lviolette
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What do you mean? REXX *was*? It still is, although rarely seen outside IBM nowadays. There are free interpreters available for Windows and Linux.
Even though REXX is still around, I will admit it is now on the wane, as Python can do everything REXX can do, and so much more, and Python code can be incredibly compact.
I used it most back in my days at IBM (1984-1993), and sporadically since then. It is a language well suited to mainframe scripting, and its integration into XEDIT and LEXX (remember that editor, anyone?) on VM made these editors the most powerful I have ever used to this day.
REXX transformed mainframe scripting, but it is of its time, and that time has passed for most of us. Still, it is a great language to work with, and I will always have feelings of affection for it.
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I wrote numerous programs and XEdit macros in Rexx back in the mid-80s. Originally, my scripts were in Exec-2 in VM/CMS on an IBM System 370, but when we got access to REXX, I rewrote them all. I recall EXECIO as being particularly fiddly.
Cheers,
Russ
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My first exposure to Rexx was when I had to convert a couple of hundred EXEC and Exec-2 scripts to Rexx under VM/CMS. I learnt XEDIT used Rexx as a macro language so I wrote a Rexx program to do 99% of the conversions for me. I originally had three months to complete the project doing 2 or 3 conversions a day. I did that for the first 5 or 6, then spent two weeks doing nothing but writing and perfecting the XEDIT macro in Rexx. My boss was getting worried that I had still only done about 10 after three weeks! Then I did the rest in 2 days using the macros. Another week fixing the issues and I was done.
I loved Rexx (and XEDIT), EXECIO not so much  .
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
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Do Ninjas always wear sneakers?
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Yup! They do it for kicks! 
Anything that is unrelated to elephants is irrelephant
Anonymous
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The problem with quotes on the internet is that you can never tell if they're genuine
Winston Churchill, 1944
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Never argue with a fool. Onlookers may not be able to tell the difference.
Mark Twain
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When I die I want to be cremated since that will be my last hope for a smoking hot body.
Social Media - A platform that makes it easier for the crazies to find each other.
Everyone is born right handed. Only the strongest overcome it.
Fight for left-handed rights and hand equality.
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ouch, that's gonna be a fire starter.
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Na, it's the burn he deserved.
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Any chance you could convince him to take a practice run at it ?
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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That would take him the rest of his life.
Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello
Never stop dreaming - Freddie Kruger
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Firestarter? I'll get you a Flint.
Specifically, Prodigy's Keith Flint. Oh wait... on this earth, he's Out Of Space.
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Lead an evil life, and head for the alternate destination. You'll be smoking hot for all eternity. 
Two out of three ain't bad...
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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