About Rexx

What is Rexx? Rexx is considered to be a scripting language, much like Perl. It is arguably as powerful, or even more so than Perl. Rexx provides many features which are similar to Perl. Both do strings very well. Perl runs many of the cgi-bin servers on the WWW, but most people don't know that Rexx can handle this task with equal ease.

Rexx is an ANSI standard language. It is now available in 3 different dialects. There is the standard "Classic Rexx", object-oriented "Object Rexx" and a strange mutant called "NetRexx" which is designed to allow programmers to code in easily readable Rexx code which then compiles to Java byte code.

Perl has the advantage in being a de-facto feature/standard in the various flavours of UNIX. And some will argue that being Open Source is also a big plus. It has also been ported to many different platforms. Rexx is not Open Source, but being an open standard has also been ported to various platforms. It is an integral part of most IBM operating systems, like OS/390, AIX or OS/2 (which runs at the bank where your money sits. I don't have to know which bank, because nearly all banks run it) and is used in machines ranging from big mainframes to good old "antique" machines such as the Amiga (which is still alive and well, by the way). It is freely available for Linux and many other platforms. Microsoft Windows appears to be the only platform on which you have to pay to get Rexx.

Rexx has one or two big advantages over Perl. For starters, Rexx is nearly always readable, unlike Perl. The object-oriented crowd will point to Object Rexx. But perhaps the most compelling is that you can actually use Rexx as an application development language, complete with GUI interface if your platform supports it. Many custom mainframe applications have been developed using Rexx.

There's not enough room (or knowledge in my head!) to discuss Rexx in depth. But if you're interested, you might like to visit these links.
IBM's Rexx Homepage
The Rexx Language Association