>>REX was the best language I ever used, and I often wished I could have ported it >>to Splash and made it freeware. I still find myself writing Cobol programs and wishing >>I had REX so I could develop it in half the time, and have a much clearer program. >>REX was sort of a reduced intruction set language. It could do everything Cobol could, >>but was much faster to learn. Since it was HP3000 and Image focused, typical programs >>were much easier to develop. It had a little in common with Transact, but I thought >>it was much cleaner. I only had access to REX for a couple of months (about 12 or so years ago) and also thought it was one of the best languages to appear on the 3000; even got withdrawl symptoms for months after the demo expired. I remember being very impressed with it, but couldnt get mgmt to share my enthusiasm, and they chose PowerHouse over PAL for their 4GL of choice. :-(( Tad. Internet From: [log in to unmask] on 13/03/2000 18:26 GMT Pour : HP3000-L cc : ccc: Tad BOCHAN Objet : more on the lost language REX/3000 I used to work on the REX project, and for a number of years actually maintained and enhanced the compiler. If you made a support call during a 10 year period, you had a good chance of talking to me. REX was a Pascal program based on the original Zurich P4 Pascal compiler (if my fading brain cells remember it right.) It produced basically assembler code, but as there was no assembler for the classic HP3000s, it produced SPL code with lots of assemble statements. When the HP PA machines came out, a project was started to change it to produce U-code (HP's name for basically what other people called P-code.) I even attended a special traning class on using HP U-code. At the time HP was going to allow a small group of vendord access to it so they could get native mode speed and functionality. Generating U-code meant the HPs optimizers would work, and that changes in underlying machine architecture would automatically be used as well. Suddenly and un-named manager at HP killed this U-code project. I never heard a reason, but guess they decided it was just too much trouble. We talked about trying to then use Splash, but everyone seemed to lose interest at this time. It still functioned ok in compatability mode but was limited by stack space. REX was the best language I ever used, and I often wished I could have ported it to Splash and made it freeware. I still find myself writing Cobol programs and wishing I had REX so I could develop it in half the time, and have a much clearer program. REX was sort of a reduced intruction set language. It could do everything Cobol could, but was much faster to learn. Since it was HP3000 and Image focused, typical programs were much easier to develop. It had a little in common with Transact, but I thought it was much cleaner. > -----Original Message----- > From: Emerson, Tom # El Monte [mailto:[log in to unmask]] > Sent: Monday, March 13, 2000 9:49 AM > To: [log in to unmask] > Subject: Re: A Little Help for the Lost. > > > Actually, 20 years ago it would have produced SPL code -- with the > introduction of XL machines came the need to create Pascal > instead of SPL. > Either way, I thought it worked quite well for what it did [and if you > didn't have anything too strenuous to create] > > They also had a front-end to this called PAL, which was > view-screen based > and would take inputs from the user to create a REX source > file. Several > [automated] compilation steps later you had pure object code > running as a > program -- much better than an interpreter at the time. > > OTOH: REXX is a language developed [I think] by IBM. It has > been ported to > several platforms including OS/2, NT, win 9x, and a few other > main/mini/micro computers that I've never worked on ;) This > is more of a > command-line/scripting language, similar to VBA or the "posix shell". > >N ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- This message is confidential; its contents do not constitute a commitment by BNP Paribas Group* except where provided for in a written agreement between you and BNP Paribas Group*. Any unauthorised disclosure, use or dissemination, either whole or partial, is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient of the message, please notify the sender immediately. *BNP Paribas Group is a trading name of BNP SA and Paribas SA Ce message est confidentiel; son contenu ne représente en aucun cas un engagement de la part du groupe BNP Paribas* sous réserve de tout accord conclu par écrit entre vous et le groupe BNP Paribas*. Toute publication, utilisation ou diffusion, même partielle, doit être autorisée préalablement. Si vous n'êtes pas destinataire de ce message, merci d'en avertir immédiatement l'expéditeur. *Le groupe BNP Paribas est le nom commercial utilisé par BNP SA et Paribas SA