Foreword for Version 2.80

And here it is: The next version of RXT&T. 

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This version of REXX Tips & Tricks (except this foreword) was again edited 
by Dave Hicks (see EMail Addresses) for proper, correct English. He also 
rewrote some sections to improve and clarify the text. 

Many thanks to Dave for his great work! 

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One highlight of the last months is the release of Object REXX for Linux. 
It's available on the web (see Internet - Web Pages) and it's free. And 
there is also a beta version of Object REXX for AIX available. Hopefully 
there will be further versions of Object REXX for other Unix operating 
systems in the future. 
Note that you should download Object REXX for Linux (even if you don't 
have Linux running) because of the documentation in Postscript format 
contained in the archive. 

Note further that as of 03/12/98 there is already an updated and bug fixed 
version of Object REXX for Linux available. 

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There is now another update for Object REXX for OS/2 on the web (see 
Internet - Web Pages) - and even the version from WARP 4 Fixpack #6 is out 
of date. Therefore I strongly recommend you try the version from the Web 
instead of the version that is part of WARP 4. 

I also encourage every one to use Object REXX instead of Classic REXX in 
OS/2 even if you only program in Classic REXX style. Ammong others, the 
main reason for this is the better syntax checking of the Object REXX 
interpreter. I, for example, use Object REXX also to syntax-check my REXX 
programs for AIX and TSO. 

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I've finally found an official distribution point for DrDialog: Every one 
can download it from the IBM Developer Connection WEB page (see Internet - 
Web Pages). 

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There were some subtle bugs in the sort routines: Mostly all of the sort 
routines in RXT&T used normal comparision - not strict comparision. 
Therefore, the routines produced a wrong result if the data to sort 
contained leading or trailing blanks. I've fixed these bugs in this 
version. 

Many thanks to Arthur Pool (see EMail Addresses) for the report about 
these bugs (including the corrected versions)! 

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The latest FixPaks for OS/2 Warp 3 (FP35 and above) and Warp 4 (FP6 and 
above) contain extensions for REXX to make it "Y2K Tolerant" (see REXX and 
Y2K). 

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Some interesting new REXX code in this version is in the sections Sample 
for persistent variables and Get the object ID for an object handle. 

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Bernd Schemmer [Team OS/2, Certified LAN Server Engineer, Certified OS/2 
Engineer], Frankfurt in September 1998 

(see also the General Foreword)