Open Object Rexx Project Status
December - 2004

We finally have the finally have all the legal problems with IBM behind us. IBM has finally released the joint IBM/RexxLA announcement concerning Open Object Rexx. You can view the announcement at the RexxLA web site as well as the Open Object Rexx home page.

Here is the final status for items received from IBM

  1. Complete source code for the Object Rexx interpreter for Windows, Linux, AIX and Solaris. The code we were given does not contain all the materials necessary to build an OS/2 interpreter.
  2. Source code for the external function libraries rexxutil, rxsock, oodialog, rxmath and some smaller libraries.
  3. Documentation in PDF and HTML format.

Here is the final status for items not received from IBM

  1. The Windows development environment (Workbench) was not turned over to RexxLA due to legal issues with the development libraries used to create this application.
  2. Rxftp external function library. There was a legal problem with this library because IBM used code that is under a non-disclosure agreement. An alpha replacement for RxFtp in the form of an ORexx class library which invokes the RxSock external function library to communicate with the target FTP server is available for review. Contact David Ashley at wdashley@sourceforge.net if you would like a copy for your review.

We have made some progress in transitioning the build process to the auto tools (autoconf, libtool, etc). We hit a snag with the latest GCC compiler because it uses strict C++ rules as opposed to the loose rules used by Visual C++ and older GCC versions. A lot of the code will have to be updated in order for it to compile correctly without warnings. This is going to take longer to finish than anticipated.

We are finally getting ourselves organized. We should have most organizational issues resolved by the end of January including a project charter and a board of directors in place. We are working closely with the RexxLA board of directors to make everything official.

The code for Open Object Rexx should appear on the SourceForge CVS repository soon. We need to tweak a few more items before we feel comforatable letting the public see our work but we promise it will be worth the wait. There will probably be multiple CVS modules involved but we will document them.

As always you can subscribe to the oorexx-announce mailing list to receive development updates and news like this.

Submitted by
W. David Ashley and the Open Object Rexx Project Team