🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <5232@sugar.hackercorp.com> peter@sugar.hackercorp.com (Peter da Silva) writes:

   In article <MWM.90Mar2120356@raven.pa.dec.com> mwm@raven.pa.dec.com (Mike (Real Amiga have keyboard garages) Meyer) writes:
   > Enough. The following two false statements have been made, and need to
   > be corrected.

   I'm sorry you interpreted my remarks as an attack on REXX. That was neither
   intended nor implied. I'm sorry if my casual and imprecise manner of writing
   has caused umprage. Let me take this opportunity to expand on my statements.

No, I didn't interpret them as an attack on Rexx; I interpreted them
as statements made in error. I was attempting to correct those; and
not to attack either you or TCL. And I didn't post twice to make the
point even harsher - that was a stupid mistake.

>>   REXX syntax and structure is based on that of PL/I, which is fine.

Rexx also has better simple string handling capabilities than TCL.
Rexx has string operators as part of the basic language, TCL has
"string match" & "format", giving it a lot more power than than raw
Rexx.

   > 2) "ARexx requires the programmer to provide a scripting language."

   OK, Arexx requires the programmer to provide a command line interpreter.

String parser of some kind, which for most applications will be a
command line interpreter. Look at treewalk & RexxPlPlot for
counterexamples, though.

   TCL is a fine command line interpreter. REXX -- meet TCL. TCL -- meet REXX.

From the looks of things, it should be straightforward to build a
TCL/Rexx package that allows one to send Rexx messages to hosts from a
TCL program, and to process Rexx messages in TCL. Since TCL (at least,
the docs in the copy I have say this) doesn't yet have IP, there's not
much point in doing the opposite. However, what get's passed to a TCL
"client" command looks an awful lot like a Rexx RXFUNC message.
Following through on that to make the AmigaTCL IP use Rexx messages
would give TCL isntant access to RexxArpLib & the like. Such
facilities may already be in AmigaTCL, though...

What's interesting is that the two languages were meant for such
similar applications, and it shows - yet they are such different
languages. Rexx has stemmed variables (associative, multi-level
arrays), and strings that can be processed along the lines of a TCL
list. TCL does real lists & pointers instead. Both have a way of
evaluating strings as expressions. TCL does C-like strings, with some
extra magic for dealing with filenames. Rexx is more a mini-snobol for
strings. Both have a way of accessing variables from calling
environments (and neither shows it at the point of the call - bleah).

That the two languages are radically different means different
applications would be better off with one or another - or maybe even
both (especially if MinRexx & Tcl_CreateCommand can be convinced to
use the same data struture). It'd be nice to have a collection of
programs that had both interfaces - or were available with both, just
to play with the two. Someone want to post a version of FreeDraw with
a TCL interface, and samples to duplicat Tomas's Rexx scripts? That'd
be a good start. Treewalk, Nag, an emacs-like editor & fiveinline with
TCL hooks (ok, I haven't released the Rexx-ported version yet) would
also be nice to see.

	<mike
--
Round about, round about, in a fair ring-a.		Mike Meyer
Thus we dance, thus we dance, and thus we sing-a.	mwm@relay.pa.dec.com
Trip and go, to and fro, over this green-a.		decwrl!mwm
All about, in and out, over this green-a.