Personal REXX for OS/2

A portable implementation of REXX for OS/2

Personal REXX for OS/2 is a complete implementation of the REXX language for OS/2. It was in fact the first commercially available implementation of REXX for OS/2, since it is based on Personal REXX for DOS, which has been available and steadily improved since 1985. Personal REXX provides uncompromising compatibility with implementations of REXX from IBM for their mission-critical OS/2, VM, MVS, and OS/400 platforms. In particular, it fully supports IBM OS/2 REXX programming interfaces, so all REXX-aware tools and applications for OS/2 continue to work with Personal REXX.

In short, Personal REXX for OS/2 does everything that IBM's REXX does, but goes beyond it to offer considerably more.

A REXX tools package includes functions IBM left out that are essential for serious REXX programming. For example: sorting compound variables, enumerating all compound variable elements, evaluating common mathematical functions, creating and using named pipes, doing "regular expression" searches, listing all file "extended attributes", and saving/restoring collections of REXX variables in a disk file. RXWINDOW, another function package, provides for character-mode window, menu, and panel management.
All programs are compiled to an internal "object code". This aids performance, and also makes it possible to distribute only the object code if you wish to protect your source code. Also, unlike IBM's REXX, there is no 64K-byte limit on the size of the object code that can be saved on disk, which means large programs do not have to be painstakingly rescanned every time they are invoked.
The application programming interface has been extended to provide application developers with essential capabilities that IBM neglected to include.
The online help system is implemented entirely with Personal REXX tools. It can be adapted to display any kind of help information you want.

However, no simple listing of program features can include some of the less obvious advantages of Personal REXX:

Extensive and complete documentation on both the REXX language and its usage in OS/2 is included with the package, not in obscure manuals which must be ordered separately.
Unrestricted technical support is readily available directly from Quercus Systems via telephone, CompuServe's PCVEN forum, and our own bulletin board system.
Personal REXX for OS/2 is part of a fully compatible family of REXX implementations for all of the popular desktop platforms: DOS, OS/2, and Windows (3.x, 95, NT).

Essential library functions

The REXX language itself defines an impressive collection of built-in programming functions, especially for character-string manipulation. However, it is mostly lacking in operating system specific functions and in other areas such as mathmatical functions. IBM's OS/2 REXX adds a few important functions through the REXXUTIL package. Personal REXX supports all of these functions, and much more. Some of the essential additional services provided include:

True system-wide global variables, offering more flexibility than "environment variables", including persistence across computer reboots.
Direct access to the screen in character mode, allowing reading and writing of both data and attributes at any screen location.
Higher-level character-mode functions for window, menu, and panel management.
Transcendental math functions like LOG, EXP, SIN, COS, and TAN.
Services for dealing with REXX compound variable "arrays" - enumerating elements, sorting, and saving or restoring groups of variables in files.
Regular expression searches of compound variable arrays.
Services for creating, destroying, and using named pipes.
Conversion of date values between any supported REXX date formats (which enables date arithmetic).

Documentation

230-page User's Guide, including an extensive language tutorial with detailed examples.
Personal REXX for OS/2 User's Guide Addendum
REXX Language Reference manual
Many sample programs.
Online help

Principal components of Personal REXX

The REXX language processor, which is packaged as a DLL (Dynamic Link Library).
REXX tools package and additional built-in functions included in the language processor to provide valuable services not included with IBM's REXX.
RXWINDOW, a library of REXX-callable functions for easily building text-mode window and menu style interfaces.
VM/CMS-like GLOBALV, LISTFILE, and EXECIO external commands.

Summary

Personal REXX for OS/2 has many advantages as a superior batch language and a general purpose personal programming language. It harnesses the outstanding productive power of OS/2 by improving signficantly on the plain vanilla REXX included with OS/2.

Personal REXX is a mature implementation of the REXX language that is fast, reliable, and robust.
Personal REXX for OS/2 is a full 32-bit program which performs better than IBM's REXX in most cases.
In functionality, documentation, and support Personal REXX is markedly superior to IBM's REXX.
Both the language and the application programming interface are fully compatible with IBM's REXX.
Personal REXX offers cross-platform portability to compatible versions for DOS, and Windows (3.x, 95, NT).
A run-time system as well as network and site licensing are available to allow wide distribution of applications written in REXX.

Ordering information

Personal REXX for OS/2 is available directly from Quercus Systems at $175 for one copy, with full documentation and support. Personal REXX for DOS is included. Add $5 for shipping and handling in North America, and $20 for shipping elsewhere. We accept MC, VISA, AmEx, and checks for U. S. funds drawn on a U. S. bank. Call for approval of purchase orders.

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Last updated: October 24, 1995