🚀 go-pugleaf

In article comp.lang.perl.misc, mjd@plover.com (Mark-Jason Dominus) wrote:
>In article <4aq2ad$drl@ccnet2.ccnet.com>,  <kbarron@barronmall.com> wrote:
>>Does anyone know of a translater or interface to convert Perl to
>>Rexx.

>I'd be really impressed to see such a thing, since Rexx doesn't have
>anything at all like Perl's regular expressions.   It also doesn't
>have formats, eval, split, join, or arrays.  (It does have associative
>arrays.)  

Small correction: it does have something like eval.  The forthcoming Object
Rexx has arrays.  The others I agree with, though there's nothing stopping
someone from writing add-on functions to do them.

>Rexx is about on the same evolutionary level as the Bourne shell.  If
>you're programming a CMS machine, you use Rexx, and you like it,
>because the other CMS scripting languages are firmly embedded in the
>1960's.  Or the 1950's.

I disagree strongly.  Rexx has many more selling points than the mere
fact that it is not CMS EXEC - or DOS batch language, for that matter -
though that is no doubt a big advantaqge.  It is decades ahead of Bourne
shell script.  Although it is not as technically advanced as perl, it
is nevertheless a modern, structured programming language with many
applications; it is also far less intimidating to new programmers.  It
will catch up on the technical side in due course.

[Cross-posted to comp.lang.rexx.  Followups set to comp.lang.rexx.]

Ian Collier - imc@comlab.ox.ac.uk - WWW Home Page:
http://www.comlab.ox.ac.uk/oucl/users/ian.collier/index.html