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Date:	Tue, 20 Jan 2004 11:55:24 PST8
From:	"Lynn H. Maxson" <lmaxson@pacbell.net >
Reply-To:	scoug-programming@scoug.com
To:	< "scoug-programming@scoug.com" > scoug-programming@scoug.com >
Subject:	SCOUG-Programming: Where to from here?

Content Type: text/plain

I guess when you have as ambitious an effort as the one we
have initiated within the programming SIG your patience gets
challenged. You have only a certain amount of time for the
monthly meeting. The challenge comes when the main
meeting runs over. This reduces the time the programming SIG
members have to air their own presentations. We had three
months in a row when the available time for the SIG didn't
allow our speakers to present as they would have liked.

Last Saturday's meeting basically saw a repeat of this.
Fortunately we could extend our initial cutoff ceiling of 2
o'clock to 3. I do get some enjoyment of watching people
doing things with their system that I either wouldn't consider
or have no interest in doing. It does increase my comfort zone
about the possibilities of our preferred operating system.

I would like to see a real demonstration of OpenOffice, either
the beta form for OS/2 or the released form for Windows and
Linux. It could very amount to that killer app that can begin
to level the playing field, allowing us to compete better with
the other OSes. That kind of demonstration in terms of
information brings hope to the OS/2 community about some
light at the end of the tunnel, even if it doesn't get turned on
until year's end.

Jerry Rash seems to delight in his presentations, a delight that
judging from the audience is quite contagious. Knowing the
difficulty that we have had in getting speakers, in fact of
planning programs, we are extremely lucky to have someone
so willing and capable of sharing from his heavily filled plate.

So I meant no disrespect toward Jerry Rash, but basically
point out that the programming SIG deserves some respect as
well. I simply ask that we not get so caught up in the the
moment that our lingering impacts moments important to
others.

As to REXX and PL/I Peter hit it on the head: REXX is free,
PL/I is not. You can extend that to C's dominant programming
role. It's free, not better. I would challenge any statement
that asserts that REXX is somehow easier to learn and master
than PL/I. We had enough instances of experienced REXX
programmers during our meeting coming to new
understandings of the PARSE verb.

I will have more to offer about REXX as a programming
language later on. REXX corresponds to OCL, the Operator
Control Language, of UNIX. You may prefer to believe that it
lies above this level and below that, above JCL for example,
but below C. However, JCL itself is an OCL. As Korn of the
Korn Shell fame in UNIX has admitted in his writing JCL
supports job flow in ways that OCL does not.

It's not easy to find an honest man in the UNIX world.
Diogenes has to look elsewhere.

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