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> IBM licensed Commodore’s AREXX scripting language and included it with OS/2 2.0. I find this hard to believe, given that Rexx was developed by IBM. http://e

> IBM licensed Commodore’s AREXX scripting language and included it with OS/2 2.0. I find this hard to believe, given that Rexx was developed by IBM. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rexx http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rexx

galonk 13y ago
Ars Technica isn't exactly big on fact checking. These days most of their short articles are rewritten press releases, and most of their long articles are personal opinion/recollection written as if it was reportage.
- wglb 13y ago
  While they may got the part about the history of AREXX wrong, most of the article is spot on.
  - Jeremy_Reimer 13y ago
    The AREXX error was my mistake. I just read the technology transfer part backwards when I was researching. I've already fixed it in the article and updated it.
  - taspeotis 13y ago
    The original tagline was "IBM doesn't make operating systems anymore for a reason" which could have been debunked by knowing anything about IBM's product line or about 5 seconds of Googling. Disclaimer: I'm an Ars subscriber and <3 Ars but when my bullshit detector is already off the charts before the article begins ... it makes me wonder how good the article is.
rodgerd 13y ago
Indeed. And IBM do, in fact, still make other OSes, contrary to the subhead of the story: zVM/CMS, zOS (MVS), AIX, and whatever they're calling AS/400 these days.
- whatusername 13y ago
  AS/400 is now "IBM i". Which leads us to the great set of names where we have: IBM i, Apple iOS, Cisco IOS
- pjmlp 13y ago
  OS/400 is very interesting OS for those interested in OS architectures. The complete userspace is bytecode based, regardless of the language. Applications are compiled on installation phase, or when the generated code is deemed not to be valid any longer. When there was an architecture change for the PowerPC, many installations only required a regeneration of the installed software. A concept that Microsoft tried with Longhorn and Windows Phone 7. Or we could even say, the model Android almost has as well. Native Oberon and Inferno also tried a similar approach, to certain extent.
  - baruch 13y ago
    Android with ART sounds very much like that. They compile the bytecode to native code at installation or major arch change.
  - dingaling 13y ago
    > When there was an architecture change for the PowerPC, many installations only required a regeneration of the installed software. Unfortunately it wasn't quite that clean in practice. Regen required TIMI to have access to the compilation templates for each program. These were intermediate compilation stages ( bytecode, I suppose ) that it could then translate to the new machine architecture. However, these templates were often missing, deleted or out-of-sync. So we did an awful lot of recompiling from source, when we could find it...
    - pjmlp 13y ago
      Thanks for the input. I only did a bit of AS/400 administration back in 1994's Summer, just logged into the system and started the backup procedure. I was actually doing Clipper development and the company where I had a Summer job used AS/400 systems for accounting. Most of I know about OS/400 bytecode system was found looking for compiler technologies a couple of years later.
lobster_johnson 13y ago
They probably misread the Wikipedia on OS/2, which says: > In addition, IBM once made a deal with Commodore to license Amiga technology for OS/2 2.0 and above in exchange for the REXX scripting language. In other words, IBM licensed REXX to Amiga in return for something else (we don't know what). But who knows if this is true. Apparently IBM and Commodore already had an IP cross-licensing agreement at the time, and had access to their patents. And AREXX apparently did not contain any IBM code.
- cturner 13y ago
  In other words, IBM licensed REXX to Amiga in return for something else (we don't know what). I think it was for technology used in the workplace shell (WPS).

galonk 13y ago

Ars Technica isn't exactly big on fact checking. These days most of their short articles are rewritten press releases, and most of their long articles are personal opinion/recollection written as if it was reportage.

wglb 13y ago
While they may got the part about the history of AREXX wrong, most of the article is spot on.
- Jeremy_Reimer 13y ago
  The AREXX error was my mistake. I just read the technology transfer part backwards when I was researching. I've already fixed it in the article and updated it.
- taspeotis 13y ago
  The original tagline was "IBM doesn't make operating systems anymore for a reason" which could have been debunked by knowing anything about IBM's product line or about 5 seconds of Googling. Disclaimer: I'm an Ars subscriber and <3 Ars but when my bullshit detector is already off the charts before the article begins ... it makes me wonder how good the article is.

rodgerd 13y ago

Indeed. And IBM do, in fact, still make other OSes, contrary to the subhead of the story: zVM/CMS, zOS (MVS), AIX, and whatever they're calling AS/400 these days.

whatusername 13y ago
AS/400 is now "IBM i". Which leads us to the great set of names where we have: IBM i, Apple iOS, Cisco IOS
pjmlp 13y ago
OS/400 is very interesting OS for those interested in OS architectures. The complete userspace is bytecode based, regardless of the language. Applications are compiled on installation phase, or when the generated code is deemed not to be valid any longer. When there was an architecture change for the PowerPC, many installations only required a regeneration of the installed software. A concept that Microsoft tried with Longhorn and Windows Phone 7. Or we could even say, the model Android almost has as well. Native Oberon and Inferno also tried a similar approach, to certain extent.
- baruch 13y ago
  Android with ART sounds very much like that. They compile the bytecode to native code at installation or major arch change.
- dingaling 13y ago
  > When there was an architecture change for the PowerPC, many installations only required a regeneration of the installed software. Unfortunately it wasn't quite that clean in practice. Regen required TIMI to have access to the compilation templates for each program. These were intermediate compilation stages ( bytecode, I suppose ) that it could then translate to the new machine architecture. However, these templates were often missing, deleted or out-of-sync. So we did an awful lot of recompiling from source, when we could find it...
  - pjmlp 13y ago
    Thanks for the input. I only did a bit of AS/400 administration back in 1994's Summer, just logged into the system and started the backup procedure. I was actually doing Clipper development and the company where I had a Summer job used AS/400 systems for accounting. Most of I know about OS/400 bytecode system was found looking for compiler technologies a couple of years later.

lobster_johnson 13y ago

They probably misread the Wikipedia on OS/2, which says: > In addition, IBM once made a deal with Commodore to license Amiga technology for OS/2 2.0 and above in exchange for the REXX scripting language. In other words, IBM licensed REXX to Amiga in return for something else (we don't know what). But who knows if this is true. Apparently IBM and Commodore already had an IP cross-licensing agreement at the time, and had access to their patents. And AREXX apparently did not contain any IBM code.

cturner 13y ago
In other words, IBM licensed REXX to Amiga in return for something else (we don't know what). I think it was for technology used in the workplace shell (WPS).