Current Status of NetRexx

[Mystery Guest]

Hello List Members

I have just download v2.05 of NetRexx but I cannot seem
to find the release notes that go with it.  It seems
substantially the same a v2.00 from the year 2000.

Does anyone know what changes were incorporated in this
release or was it just a repackaging for the new web
site?

Continuing along this line.  NetRexx really hasn't changed
much since 2000 while Java has gone through a number of
iterations.  As well there used to be some semi-regular postings
to this forum but even those have dropped off dramatically.
Is this because Java has introduced new features or contstructs
that NetRexx has not been updated to support?   I hate to ask
but is NetRexx now obsolete?  An academic exercise that proved
its point that one can design "...a language for people,
not computers."?  I really would like to use it but am concerned
about its currency.


Is anyone aware of a non-IBM version of NetRexx or NetRexx-like
product?  I looked at Groovy and Jython and JRuby but the more
I look at those the more I like NetRexx.

Your comments would be appreciated.

Thanks for reading.

./CK



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[Mike Cowlishaw-2]

> I have just download v2.05 of NetRexx but I cannot seem
> to find the release notes that go with it.  It seems
> substantially the same a v2.00 from the year 2000.
>
> Does anyone know what changes were incorporated in this
> release or was it just a repackaging for the new web
> site?

There was one enhancement -- automatic loading of all .jar files (because
certain JVMs renamed the standard .jar files) -- and a couple of minor bug
fixes.
 
> Continuing along this line.  NetRexx really hasn't changed
> much since 2000 while Java has gone through a number of
> iterations.  As well there used to be some semi-regular postings
> to this forum but even those have dropped off dramatically.
> Is this because Java has introduced new features or constructs
> that NetRexx has not been updated to support?   I hate to ask
> but is NetRexx now obsolete?

I use it regularly :-).  I have not given up hope of working on it again,
but it has just been impossible to spend any time on it over the last few
years.  It's still the fastest way to 'try something out' for Java.

> Is anyone aware of a non-IBM version of NetRexx or NetRexx-like
> product?  I looked at Groovy and Jython and JRuby but the more
> I look at those the more I like NetRexx.

There is a group working on such a thing, but rather slowly, I think.

Mike Cowlishaw

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[Mike Cowlishaw-2]

>   One defect I've noticed in the current distribution: nrc and
> NetRexxC.sh have DOS newlines, which doesn't work on Unix, and the bash
> error message is confusing:
> bash: /home/mahughes/NetRexx/bin/nrc: bad interpreter: No such file or
> directory

Those are just samples; if you don't like them, please delete them.  Or,
better still, write some better ones that work everywhere!  (I did test
them on Linux, but that was several years ago.)

mfc

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[Mystery Guest]

First of all I would like to thank all those who took
the time to respond to my query.

It sounds like NetRexx should still function without
any problems at the newer levels of Java.  That is,
the newer levels of Java did not introduce any changes
that would break NetRexx or introduce a new keyword feature
that NetRexx cannot handle [e.g. if Java introduced a
new keyword on the class defintion say, "superextends",
that NetRexx would not have the corresponding support
for].

The downside is that NetRexx does not generate any
Java code that takes advantage of the newer features
of Java.  For example,  parse would not take advantage
of the regular expression features added in 1.4, or
the use of generics introduced in 1.5 is not used.

The worst case, I suppose,  is that NetRexx
generates deprecated code that is no longer supported
in the later levels of Java.  I don't think Sun has
actually removed any deprecated methods yet that
would cause any problems but I suppose in the future
this could become an issue.

Are these fair statements/observations to make?

Thanks in advance.

./CK



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[Mike Cowlishaw-2]

A N Other wrote:

> It sounds like NetRexx should still function without
> any problems at the newer levels of Java.  That is,
> the newer levels of Java did not introduce any changes
> that would break NetRexx or introduce a new keyword feature
> that NetRexx cannot handle [e.g. if Java introduced a
> new keyword on the class definition say, "superextends",
> that NetRexx would not have the corresponding support
> for].
>
> The downside is that NetRexx does not generate any
> Java code that takes advantage of the newer features
> of Java.  For example,  parse would not take advantage
> of the regular expression features added in 1.4, or
> the use of generics introduced in 1.5 is not used.
>
> The worst case, I suppose,  is that NetRexx
> generates deprecated code that is no longer supported
> in the later levels of Java.  I don't think Sun has
> actually removed any deprecated methods yet that
> would cause any problems but I suppose in the future
> this could become an issue.
>
> Are these fair statements/observations to make?

Yes, that's about it, though it would be unlikely for Parse to change in
any case, as at the moment it is identical to Parse in Rexx, and changing
it would be very confusing for those of us who use both languages.  (Some
say it's complicated enough already, too :-)).

mfc





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[Mike Cowlishaw-2]

>   Okay!  I put together a few of my more publicly-usable bits on a page:
> <http://kuoi.asui.uidaho.edu/~kamikaze/NetRexx/>

Looks good!   Thanks.

mfc

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