NetRexx History Question

[Duke Normandin]

How did NetRexx go from Marchesini/ETH Zurich  to Cowlishaw/IBM??

There seems to be a pivotal point occurring at about 1999/2000, or
am I imagining things, and IBM was always involved?

--
Duke

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[Aviatrexx]

NetRexx is the creation of IBM Fellow Mike Cowlishaw in 1996, which
meant that IBM was the owner of the work product.  IBM made NetRexx
available for free as Employee Written Software until ownership was
transferred to the Rexx Language Association in 2011 as an Open Source
Project.

Pierantonio Marchesini was an early contributor to NetRexx adoption
with his extensive set of NetRexx tutorials and external class libraries.

Mike is the still the Architect of NetRexx and a crucial member of the
RexxLA NetRexx Project's Architecture Review Board.  IBM is no longer
directly involved.

-Chip-

On 12/8/2012 22:59 Duke Normandin said:
> How did NetRexx go from Marchesini/ETH Zurich  to Cowlishaw/IBM??
>
> There seems to be a pivotal point occurring at about 1999/2000, or
> am I imagining things, and IBM was always involved?

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[Duke Normandin]

On Sat, 08 Dec 2012 23:41:36 -0500
Chip Davis <[hidden email]> wrote:


>
> On 12/8/2012 22:59 Duke Normandin said:
> > How did NetRexx go from Marchesini/ETH Zurich  to
> > Cowlishaw/IBM??
> >
> > There seems to be a pivotal point occurring at about 1999/2000,
> > or am I imagining things, and IBM was always involved?
>

> NetRexx is the creation of IBM Fellow Mike Cowlishaw in 1996,
> which meant that IBM was the owner of the work product.  IBM made
> NetRexx available for free as Employee Written Software until
> ownership was transferred to the Rexx Language Association in
> 2011 as an Open Source Project.
>
> Pierantonio Marchesini was an early contributor to NetRexx
> adoption with his extensive set of NetRexx tutorials and external
> class libraries.
>
> Mike is the still the Architect of NetRexx and a crucial member
> of the RexxLA NetRexx Project's Architecture Review Board.  IBM
> is no longer directly involved.

Got it!

I was curious because I hadn't stumbled on Mike's name in
association with NetRexx for those early years of the language, as
much as Pierantonio's. The latter being at ETH at the time, the
home of Mr. Wirth of the Pascal/Modula/Oberon fame, I thought that
perhaps it might have been an ETH/IBM joint venture initially, with
IBM taking over eventually when no more PH.D. candidates were
interested in NetRexx -- or something.

I'm glad I asked! Thanks ...

--
Duke

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[Mike Cowlishaw]

> I was curious because I hadn't stumbled on Mike's name in
> association with NetRexx for those early years of the
> language, as much as Pierantonio's. The latter being at ETH
> at the time, the home of Mr. Wirth of the
> Pascal/Modula/Oberon fame, I thought that perhaps it might
> have been an ETH/IBM joint venture initially, with IBM taking
> over eventually when no more PH.D. candidates were interested
> in NetRexx -- or something.
>
> I'm glad I asked! Thanks ...

Just to confirm Chip's summary: yes, I designed and implemented NetRexx entirely
on my own.  

I just looked in my diary, and the day I started working on it (it's "birthday",
if you like) was 10 December 1995.  So, tomorrow it will be 17 years old.  :-)

First (internal to IBM) release was 29 February 1996 (at that point the compiler
was written in Rexx).  It was converted to NetRexx in parallel and was released
external to IBM for the first time on 27 June 1996.

Mike

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[Duke Normandin]

On Sun, 9 Dec 2012 08:30:01 -0000
"Mike Cowlishaw" <[hidden email]> wrote:

> > I was curious because I hadn't stumbled on Mike's name in
> > association with NetRexx for those early years of the
> > language, as much as Pierantonio's. The latter being at ETH
> > at the time, the home of Mr. Wirth of the
> > Pascal/Modula/Oberon fame, I thought that perhaps it might
> > have been an ETH/IBM joint venture initially, with IBM taking
> > over eventually when no more PH.D. candidates were interested
> > in NetRexx -- or something.
> >
> > I'm glad I asked! Thanks ...
>
> Just to confirm Chip's summary: yes, I designed and implemented
> NetRexx entirely on my own.  
>
> I just looked in my diary, and the day I started working on it
> (it's "birthday", if you like) was 10 December 1995.  So,
> tomorrow it will be 17 years old.  :-)
>
> First (internal to IBM) release was 29 February 1996 (at that
> point the compiler was written in Rexx).  It was converted to
> NetRexx in parallel and was released external to IBM for the
> first time on 27 June 1996.

Well then!! Happy birthday to your brain-child and kudos to you!!

Do you know if NetRexx was an option in the ETH curriculum back
then, or was Pierantonio's involvement strictly personal? I ask
because the cover page of his excellent tutorial mentions ETH in
the title. That's what made me think that ETH was somehow involved.



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[Mike Cowlishaw]

 
>
> Well then!! Happy birthday to your brain-child and kudos to you!!

:-)  Thanks!

> Do you know if NetRexx was an option in the ETH curriculum
> back then, or was Pierantonio's involvement strictly
> personal? I ask because the cover page of his excellent
> tutorial mentions ETH in the title. That's what made me think
> that ETH was somehow involved.

Absolutely no idea -- I don't recall any contact between me and Pierantonio (or
ETH) at that time; I didn't hear about his tutorials, etc., until much later.  A
quick search shows no relevant links in my NetRexx pages.

Mike

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