🚀 go-pugleaf

All,

First a disclaimer:
I'll try to be objective, but it's more likely to be highly colored
by the missed talks, the ones I did attend, what little I really
know of/about REXX, and how much the language appeals to me...  :-)
Thus any & all corrections/updates are more than welcome.

First of all a special word of thanks to Cathie Dager (mistress of
ceremonies) and her crew for making it once again a most wonderful
event!  Also for the successful efforts to get the PD-REXX guys
to the Sympos!
And whether in T-shirt & jeans or suit & tie, everyone seemed to
feel perfectly comfortable.  But then, with such a hostess & crew,
who wouldn't be?!  :-)

  Um.. That T-shirt with the text "REXX, it's in the cards!":
  Which processor cards does it refer to?  (grin)
  ("Hard-wired REXX", ROM-REXX: what a (CMS-)pipe(s) dream...)  :-)

Request:
Someone asked me what the chances are to have next year's Sympos in
London (not Canada, but in the UK).  Maybe charter a plane for the
American attenders?  And a chance to savour STRONG coffee ("regular"
for Europeans, that is..).  >:-)
I pass this request on to the organizers for evaluation.


The '92 REXX Sympos (May 3-5 in Annapolis, Maryland, USA) was full
of positive news re REXX in many aspects.  REXX is making headway in
all kinds of different fields.

REXX-awareness of applications is increasing by jumps.  To mention
just a *FEW*:
 - REXX and OOPS, or as Eric Giguere puts it: OOUI ("GUI" with a VERY
   soft "G"), (Jim Babka's OO-REXX demo), (Kathleen Garvey with
   ObjectVision)
 - REXX in Microsoft Windows (Charles Daney)
 - REXX in Lotus 1-2-3 macros (Tony Walsh)

In the area of "be friendly to programmers and users":
 - REXX in Unix (Neil Milsted, Ed Spire, Anders Christensen, Alberto
   Vilarica, Anthony Green)
 - REXX in Natural Language (Marc Irvin)
 - REXX in Communications (Rainer Hauser)
 - REXX in CMS Pipelines (Melinda Varian, of "What Mother Never
   Told you about VM Maintenance" fame)

To learn more about REXX, and be able to speed programs up:
 - REXX books (Gabe Goldberg, Anthony Rudd)
 - REXX compilers (Walter Pachl for IBM, Bernie Style for Systems
   Center)

Special mentions:
Linda Green said there are at least 35 books on REXX now (50 or so
  if one includes all the opsys-specific manuals), and over 1 (or
  was it 10?) million REXX users.

REXX-awareness of Lotus 1-2-3 users and in various windowing systems
  should help make the life of a lot of users (& of their collegues)
  much easier.  When will WordPerfect & dBase follow?  (grin)

Marc Irvin spoke on road blocks which still keep programmers from
  *really* forging ahead and writing programs as near normal spoken
  language as possible.  The title of his thesis (REXX2000 - Chosen
  Language of Man & Machine) reflects his belief that REXX is a good
  start in the direction of a "natural computer language".
  May we hear more from him, and his efforts to remove those road
  blocks!

The joint presentation of two PD-REXX implementations for Unix (by
  Anders Christensen and Alberto Vilarica, hosted by Ed Spire (The
  Workstation Group)) and followed by a Unix-REXX free-for-all was a
  (*IMHO*) refreshing example of how for-profit vendors (iX and The
  Workstation Group) and not-for-profit PD implementors can not only
  coexist, but (hopefully) help each other (in friendly "competition")
  and the REXX community to increase easy availability and quality of
  REXX implementations.

  Personally, I hope to see more vendors follow the trend on opsyses
  other than Unix.  Free PC-REXX, MacIntosh-REXX anyone?  >:-)
  Both PD-REXX (for Unix) implementations are now ftp-able from
  <rexx.uwaterloo.ca> in /pub/freerexx, as mentioned earlier.

  In true REXX-style Anders Christensen christened  ;-)  his version
  "Regina" ("queen", as opposed(?) to REXX, the king).

It's high time for REXXlist and comp.lang.rexx to be cross-posted
  (and the non-general discussions on comp.lang.rexx moved to
  separate subgroups & cross-linked with their counterparts in the
  LISTSERV world).  The waste of bandwidth and duplicated talks...
  C'mon, REXXperts (thanks, Linda & Otto!) in BITnet & Internet,
  let's get together!  "Because It's Time"...
  Had cross-posting been in effect the past few months, I believe a
  third PD-REXX for Unix might have been announceable...  More I
  cannot say.  That is up to the implementor, of course.

Anthony Green created REXXTACY (translates REXX to C on Unix) in
  order to learn REXX, he says.  :-)
  (Omigosh, yet another word-play on "REXX"...  >;-)  )
  Yes, it must be an extasy to be able to *write* comfortably in
  REXX, without having to learn all the intricacies of C and
  "code" programs...  ;-\

Michael Cowlishaw (the King of REXX..) spoke on the future of REXX.
  Though I now have his autograph in my copy of TRL (2nd ed.), I can
  not remember a word he said (memory failure!)...  :-(
  My impression was that he hoped REXX would continue to be as easy
  to understand and write in as it currently is.

  "Which language could be better than REXX, maybe unthrone it?" was
  a question someone asked.  MFC replied "Basic, had it retained its
  original form".  (I *must* be misquoting.  Please correct me!)
  MFC also seemed happy with the free REXX announcements and progress
  made by the ANSIREXX committee re standardization of REXX, one of
  the key items being increased opsys-independancy.


Thanks in advance for corrections & such, and for not deleting the
item (if you read this far...).   :->

Happy REXXing, and see you next year at the Sympos!
$$/