Open Object Rexx Project Status
November - 2004

We have run into a delay in getting the project established. The IBM lawyers want to take the source code through another round of internal review before releasing it to the Open Source community. This means a delay of at least another month (and probably more like two months) before we can really begin putting a release together. This is disappointing news but we do not believe that this process will impact IBM's decision to open source Object Rexx. As always, lawyers have the last say in any legal process of this nature.

But there is good news. IBM has finally approved the language for the joint IBM/RexxLA announcement concerning Open Object Rexx. Look for the announcement on the RexxLA web site as well as the Open Object Rexx home page.

The proposed charter for the project is currently under review and we hope to adopt it by the end of December.

Here is the latest 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 latest status for items not yet received from IBM

  1. The Windows development environment. We will probably never get this due to some legal issues with the development libraries used to create this application.
  2. Documentation source code. We may be able to obtain the SGML source from IBM after all, but it will be in a proprietary SGML format. But all is not lost as we have found a source who will be willing to extract the source in DocBook format from the supplied PDFs including the style sheet and index information.
  3. Rxftp external function library. There is a legal problem with this library because IBM used code that is under a non-disclosure agreement. Work has begun on a 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. This will not be a direct functional replacement for the RxFtp external library but it will provide equivalent functionality in the form of a class library.

We have also begun transitioning the build process to use the open source auto tools (autoconf, libtool, etc). We still have a lot of work to do to make this approach work but we are making progress. This work should make the build process portable across multiple platforms including the Windows CygWin environment.

There are still a lot of legal issues to overcome before the code can be put in the SourceForge CVS repository. All theses issues will take some time to resolve so your patience will be appreciated. Again, please check back with http://www.RexxLA.org/ or subscribe to the list oorexx-announce to receive development updates and news like this.

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