RE: Long File Names for XyWrite

[Robert Holmgren holmgren@xxxxxxxx]

** Reply to note from xywrite@xxxxxxxx Mon, 14 Jun 1999 16:11:02 -0500

> R. Holmgren said:
> ....
> we've got to settle on a programming language to use, it's
> got to be freeware, it's got to suit the programming capabilities of
> XyWriters
> (i.e. keep it simple), and it's got to be available in at least four
> flavors (Unix,
> OS/2, Dos16, and Win32) with the same syntax throughout. A tall order. 
> We're
> certainly open to ideas, too, if anyone has any --
> ....
 
> Use Perl. It's about the most powerful text processing language out
> there, and its syntax is no more difficult to learn than XPL (although
> the philosophy is completely different).

> Or, if you want an easy-to-look-at, powerful text processing language,
> use Tcl.

There are two further desiderata that I didn't mention: It's got to be an
interpreted language (so that we can execute instructions written -- even "on
the fly" -- and issued at the XyWrite level without having to compile them), and it
needs to be very strong at disk I/O, because mainly we're dealing with files.

If I had it to do all over again, Perl would be my first choice. I've
written lots of CGI scripts in Perl, also one Linux application, and it's great.
However, I desperately wish to avoid doing it all over again. Porting is a pain.
The flexibility of Rexx, the default OS/2 scripting language, and especially the
strong disk capabilities and the good RexxUtil library, led us to use Rexx from the
start. We already have a LOT of fully-debugged Rexx code. So, simply from the
standpoint of ease, Object Rexx would be our first choice. We wouldn't have to do
much of anything. But unfortunately, although ObjectRexx is built-in to OS/2, and
is free to Linux users, the Win9x/NT versions are NOT free (and IBM's so-called
"Shop" always seems to be down, so I can't find out how much they are). The other
free Rexxs are not as good (mainly because you can't load the big RexxUtil
library in them). That's pretty much where things stand at the moment...

I don't know TCL. What's that like?




-----------
Robert Holmgren
holmgren@xxxxxxxx
-----------