REX 3.20 News memo -- 11 July 1983 ================================== ------------------------------------------------------------------------ REX 3.20 - VM/SP 3 Migration release. | REX NEWS14 11 Jul 1983 13:31 | From: MFC at VENTA | Mike Cowlishaw - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - + - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - This memo lists the changes in the REX 3.20 release. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ REX 3.20 (as implemented in the VM/SP 3 System Product Interpreter) is an almost identical implementation of the language as the internal REX 3.10 released in November 1982. There are however some changes, and the purpose of this release is to allow people to use a version of REX that is truly identical to that in the VM/SP 3 product. The significant changes since REX 3.10 are nearly all in the CMS interfaces, and are of consequence to "assembler" programmers only. Some may affect REX programmers too. Since some of the changes are quite major, the new internal release is implemented using the migration mechanism used for the change to REX 3.00 two years ago. For normal execution, REX 3.20 will act just like REX 3.10 (with only trivial changes and a few bug fixes). It should run under any CMS release including Release 5. A test mode is supported, turned on by TRACER TEST and turned off by TRACER NOTEST. When in test mode, REX will act exactly like the VM/SP 3 release. It uses identical code as far as is possible. Users and systems programmers may therefore run REX in non-test mode for current production use, and switch to test mode for testing and simulation of the VM/SP 3 interpreter. The other support modules in the REX package have all been modified so they will run with existing REX modules, the new module, and also the product interpreter (VM/SP Release 3). ********************************************************************* ** ** ** It is STRONGLY recommended that installations plan to use REX ** ** 3.20, in SP 3 compatibility mode, as standard by the end of ** ** 1983 at the latest. Customers will be receiving REX 3.20 in ** ** August 1983 via the Early Ship Plan, and I cannot guarantee to ** ** be able to support earlier releases beyond the end of 1983. ** ** ** ********************************************************************* ====== Changes since REX 3.10 ======== The changes to REX are described in the file "REX320 SCRIPT", which is a supplement to the existing REX 3.10 manual ("REXDOC SCRIPT"). This list is just a summary. Changes to REX: Address CMS: commands passed to CP are translated to upper case. "TRACE;" now restores to default (i.e. no modes, and Trace Normal). DO clauses are traced on second/subsequent time around loop. "EXEC *" will no longer execute an arbitrary Exec. Locate of a compound variable Stem returns initial value, if any. >C> trace flag and tracing only if REAL substitution. ''x is now a valid hex string, but no leading/trailing blanks allowed. Interactive trace error message improved with text and code. Stand-alone comments/labels in ELSE DO group are now traced properly. CALL tracing is now consistent for TRACE I and TRACE R. New error messages and DMSREXnnnE codes as per SP3. Minimal file space allocation if running under VM/SP. ESTATE is used to find files if running VM/SP. '' (null) template in parsing means "end of string". Sundry minor bugs fixed and cleanups applied. RND and CENT built-in-function synonyms removed Changes to REX activated by TRACER TEST only: Address CMS now uses 0B flag in R1. THENs now properly checked and give error. RC=2 and RC=1 not possible from EXECCOMM interface. Use of ancient EXECCOMM Plist causes warning message. New Symbolic/Direct names interface for EXECCOMM. 05 Plist used for function/subroutine calls. Autoload from new function packages (RXSYSFN, RXLOCFN, and RXUSERFN). Macros are included in external routine call search order. Bilingual Execs give message. Changes to support modules etc: All modules have been updated to run with both internal REX releases and with "Vanilla" VM/SP 2 and VM/SP 3. IOX has had several other changes - see IOX NEWS. EXECUPDT EXEC (VM/SP 3 Exec update facility) has been added to the package, as has RXXREX. REX EXEC has been modernised a little, and gains a new REX F facility to force-load the internal REX module or any other specified module. "REX I" will give a return code of 1 if REX is already installed. Mike Cowlishaw. July 1983.