Blog

In the latest of his blog entries, Carl Svensson investigates the unsubstantiated claim that Commodore received a REXX license from IBM in exchange for using design ideas from the Amiga Workbench in the development of OS/2 2.0. His conclusion, though: this rumor is not true:

https://www.amiga-news.de/en/news/AN-2026-02-00020-EN.html

#Amiga #IBM #Rexx #blog #Commodore

I have pages 48-58 of the ANSI REXX standard (covering arithmetic operations under REXX’s arbitrary precision rules) printed out and on the table by the couch for reasons.

I promise I’m actually really fun at parties.

#rexx

With some help from the SZE community, I can now log my service uptime and latency in #Db2 using #Golang !

I've got a service called CompInvZ which links into my Db2Z host to find services, then it periodically tries to connect and records the result back to DB2

A friend of mine took it a step further and is using #ISPF to interact with Db2 via #REXX

That means #CICS is next on the list, thanks #Walmart !
https://github.com/walmartlabs/zECS

#Mainframe #IBM #ZOS #programming #COBOL #HLASM

The ANSI REXX specification is so snarky, I love it.

"The user of this standard is assumed to know the results of the binary operators '+' and '-' applied to signed or unsigned integers."

"In a formal sense, an implementation which processed any program solely by raising the 'System resources exhausted' message would be a conforming implementation. The good sense of implementers will ensure that in practice the spirit of this standard is upheld."

#rexx #programming

OORexx. Класс блокировки ресурсов

При работе нескольких независимых процессов использующих общие ресурсы, возникает задача синхронизации доступа. Ресурсом может выступать как файл или строчка в файле, так и доступ к железу или же ожидание завершения вычисления в параллельном процессе. Для реализации синхронизации между процессами необходимо иметь возможность межпотокового обмена данными. В OORexx для реализации многопоточной работы есть инструкции « guard » и « reply ». Но они относятся к работе в рамках одного процесса. Для синхронизации работы разных процессов можно использовать семафоры и внешние очереди (каналы). Вот о них мы и поговорим.

https://habr.com/ru/articles/967754/

#oorexx #rexx

I'm leaning toward #Forth for #AdventOfCode2025. I've been looking at Forth and #Rexx and the whole "build your own kitchen sink" feeling appeals to me. I see some libraries out there, but I can avoid them :)

Being on an Apple Silicon Mac limits my selection of Forths--no Rosetta no how. I had hoped for more pure C engines than I found.

gforth is the big kid on the block, but last time I played with it I couldn't build it myself (a soft requirement). Installs and runs well, but feels "big" and I'm looking for "small."

pforth https://github.com/philburk/pforth is an early favorite. I crash it sometimes but that's my bad code.. Feels solid with correct code.

fforth (this one) https://cowlark.com/fforth/index.html builds and runs like greased lightning.

muforth https://github.com/nimblemachines/muforth would probably simulate the programming for a dedicated device experience. I'd have to see if its ARM support could run under a container on my Mac. Maybe qemu?

If anyone sees this and has suggestions for something I missed please let me know.

Coming back here ... too much post-apocalyptic news and politics elsewhere.

I'm gearing up for #AdventOfCode2025 and trying to decide which language to use. It's either

#Pascal, which I know well.
#Forth, which I haven't seriously looked at in a few decades.
#Rexx, same as Forth (on *nix, not a mainframe).

I've done AoC in Pascal, C, and Fortran in the past. All work well, but if I don't try a new language, I'll go with my first love in FPC Pascal.

Anyone who might see this, do you have opinions/recommendations/experience with using Forth or Rexx for #AdventOfCode? I've got a month to re-familiarize myself with either Forth or Rexx.