Personal REXX Users,

This is the official Personal REXX 3.0 upgrade notice you have been
waiting for. Since a few months ago when we announced, together
with Mansfield Software, that Quercus Systems would be taking over
development and marketing of Personal REXX, we have heard from many
of you. We have been encouraged by your interest in the product.
There have, of course, been a number of questions. For the benefit
of everyone, I thought I'd take this opportunity to answer some of
the most frequent questions.

Q: Just who is Quercus Systems anyway?

A: We're the co-developers of Personal REXX, along with Mansfield
Software. We've been involved with the product since the very
beginning.

Q: What are the principal new features of version 3.0 of Personal
REXX?

A: Probably the improved performance and the removal of memory
limitations made possible by swapping. The performance improvement
does depend largely on what you're doing, of course, but Personal
REXX is twice as fast in many common cases now. Swapping means that
REXX does not need to take up memory when you're running large
programs like databases, spreadsheets, or graphics. These two
improvements together mean that it's now much more reasonable to
use REXX in "real" applications.

Q: Are there any changes to the REXX language itself?

A: Yes, Personal REXX now fully supports the latest REXX 4.0
language specification. This means it's fully compatible with other
implementations, such as IBM's OS/2 REXX. The language enhancements
are especially notable in the areas of passing data to
subprocedures, parsing, and exception handling.

Q: Any other noteworthy improvements?

A: We've added a number of useful, new built-in functions. They
include such capabilities as file-name validation, changing the
date stamp on a file, and the ability to test for names that are
devices or subdirectories. We've also made it much easier to work
with DOS environment variables. The "interrupt manager" TSR program
is no longer required if you don't need the services it enables.
And all Personal REXX TSRs can be unloaded when you don't need
them.

Q: Is it going to be possible to distribute programs written in
REXX to users within an organization or to customers of commercial
software?

A: Yes. Effective with the release of version 3.0 we will offer
licenses for a run-time version of Personal REXX. The license will
allow you to distribute applications with a Personal REXX run-time
module and any Personal REXX utilities, based on the payment of a
small per-copy charge that is much lower than the cost of the full
package. The run-time version allows applications to be distributed
with or without source code, but it does not allow for execution
of programs not compiled with the full language processor.

Q: Will Mansfield Software continue to have any involvement with
REXX?

A: Yes. Until July, 1992, Mansfield Software will support Personal
REXX users who do not upgrade to version 3.0. (Quercus Systems will
offer support only for version 3.0 and follow-ons.) In addition,
the KEDIT interface to Personal REXX will continue to be supported.


Q: Will Personal REXX continue to be supported and enhanced for
OS/2?

A: Absolutely. As you are probably aware, Version 2.0 of OS/2,
which is scheduled to be available from IBM this year, will be a
very capable platform for new "32-bit" OS/2 applications, and will
provide full support for older DOS and Windows programs as well.
Since the release of OS/2 2.0 is only a few months away, and since
the programming interfaces it supports for REXX are different from
those provided in earlier versions, we have decided to delay the
introduction of Personal REXX 3.0 for OS/2 until OS/2 2.0 ships.
Although the base system will include IBM's version of REXX, we
will continue to support Personal REXX in OS/2, because it will
offer superior performance, functionality, documentation, and
customer support, as well as full compatibility with Personal REXX
for DOS. Current users of Personal REXX for OS/2 who upgrade to
version 3.0 now for the DOS support will automatically receive the
corresponding OS/2 version when it is available.

Q: Will there be a Windows version of Personal REXX?

A: Yes. In fact, it's already running in the "lab". Personal REXX
for Windows will initially include Windows-specific features like
a built-in editing window and an interactive I/O window. The
primary emphasis initially will be to provide application
programming interfaces (much like those for OS/2 REXX) to allow
REXX to function as a "universal macro language". Many other
features to exploit the Windows environment are obviously possible
and will be added as time permits. Of course, it takes time to
develop products for graphical environments like Windows, but we
hope to have a first release ready early in 1992. Similar graphical
features will also be provided for Personal REXX under OS/2.

Q: What other products does Quercus Systems have?

A: REXXTERM, an asynchronous communication package for DOS and OS/2
that uses REXX for its scripting language. We plan to offer many
other REXX-related products for DOS, Windows, and OS/2. Stay tuned.

Q: Will there be a bulletin board and a place on CompuServe for
electronic product support?

A: Yes, our bulletin board is up and running now. The number is
(408) 867-7488. Modem settings are 1200/2400-8-N-1. In addition to
product support messages, we plan to offer all the public domain
and shareware REXX programs for DOS and OS/2 that we can find. We
will also carry everything from "REXXLIB", a cross-platform
collection of public domain REXX software. Quercus Systems has a
strong interest in modem-based communications, since we also offer
REXXTERM. We hope the BBS will be useful to the REXX community, and
you may expect to see many interesting developments on it. We also
plan to have a presence on CompuServe. At this writing we're still
doing the "paperwork" for that, but Mansfield will continue to
welcome REXX discussion in their section of the PCVEN forum until
the new arrangements are complete. We are also accessible
electronically through MCI Mail, BIX, and the Internet.

Q: How much does the upgrade cost?

A: $55 plus shipping and handling. This includes a thoroughly
revised User's Guide and Reference Summary. It also includes a copy
of the new, second edition of Mike Cowlishaw's The REXX Language.
This new edition fully documents all new features in the 4.0
version of the language. Many Personal REXX users already have this
edition, which has been shipped with Personal REXX since last year.
Therefore, we are also offering the upgrade itself, without the
book, for just $40.

Q: What if I just recently purchased one or more copies of Personal
REXX?

A: Any copies of Personal REXX 2.0 purchased on or after May 1,
1991, may be upgraded for just the shipping and handling charge.
(Such copies have the new edition of the Cowlishaw book, so it will
not be included in the upgrade.) Please include a copy of a dated
proof of purchase if this applies to you.

Charles Daney
Quercus Systems
