Thank you for passing that word on, Gabe. Mike Cowlishaw ranks right up at the top, along with Lynn Wheeler, as a significant person in the history of VM. Both have gone on to make marks in other, non-VM areas of computer science. I've had the pleasure of meeting and spending time with both.
Jim Bohnsack ________________________________________ From: The IBM z/VM Operating System [ib...@listserv.uark.edu] On Behalf Of Gabe Goldberg [g...@gabegold.com] Sent: Wednesday, February 17, 2010 7:21 PM To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU Subject: End of an era This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --------------000902010007050406040002 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Mike Cowlishaw, developer of the REXX language, author of several books, and IBM Fellow for quite some time, will take early retirement from IBM March 5. It's hard to exaggerate -- or even grasp, really -- how much REXX changed IBM computing and how those lucky enough to know REXX get their work done. While many people provided feedback, suggestions, criticism, etc. during REXX development, it was Mike's project. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/REXX says: REXX was designed and first implemented, in assembly language <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assembly_language>, as an 'own-time' project between 20 March 1979 and mid-1982 by Mike Cowlishaw <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Cowlishaw> of IBM, originally as a scripting programming language <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scripting_programming_language> to replace the languages EXEC <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXEC> and EXEC 2 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXEC_2>^[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/REXX#cite_note-0> . It was designed to be a macro <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macro_%28computer_science%29> or scripting language for any system. As such, REXX is considered a precursor to Tcl <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tcl> and Python <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Python_%28programming_language%29>. REXX was also intended by its creator to be a simplified and easier to learn version of the PL/I <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PL/I> programming language. Some Mike links: http://domino.research.ibm.com/comm/research_people.nsf/pages/cowlishaw.index.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Cowlishaw http://www.statemaster.com/encyclopedia/Mike-Cowlishaw http://domino.research.ibm.com/comm/research_people.nsf/pages/cowlishaw.bio.html ...and that's only four out of 31,200 Google hits on "Mike Cowlishaw". His email address will be m...@speleotrove.com. -- Gabriel Goldberg, Computers and Publishing, Inc. (703) 204-0433 3401 Silver Maple Place, Falls Church, VA 22042 g...@gabegold.com LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/gabegold --------------000902010007050406040002 Content-Type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"> </head> <body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000"> Mike Cowlishaw, developer of the REXX language, author of several books, and IBM Fellow for quite some time, will take early retirement from IBM March 5. It's hard to exaggerate -- or even grasp, really -- how much REXX changed IBM computing and how those lucky enough to know REXX get their work done. <br> <br> While many people provided feedback, suggestions, criticism, etc. during REXX development, it was Mike's project. <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/REXX";>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/REXX</a> says:<br> <br> REXX was designed and first implemented, in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assembly_language"; title="Assembly language">assembly language</a>, as an ‘own-time’ project between 20 March 1979 and mid-1982 by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Cowlishaw"; title="Mike Cowlishaw">Mike Cowlishaw</a> of IBM, originally as a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scripting_programming_language"; title="Scripting programming language" class="mw-redirect">scripting programming language</a> to replace the languages <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXEC"; title="EXEC" class="mw-redirect">EXEC</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXEC_2"; title="EXEC 2">EXEC 2</a><sup id="cite_ref-0" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/REXX#cite_note-0";><span>[</span>1<span>]</span></a></sup>. It was designed to be a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macro_%28computer_science%29"; title="Macro (computer science)">macro</a> or scripting language for any system. As such, REXX is considered a precursor to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tcl"; title="Tcl">Tcl</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Python_%28programming_language%29"; title="Python (programming language)">Python</a>. REXX was also intended by its creator to be a simplified and easier to learn version of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PL/I"; title="PL/I">PL/I</a> programming language.<br> <br> Some Mike links:<br> <br> <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://domino.research.ibm.com/comm/research_people.nsf/pages/cowlishaw.index.html";>http://domino.research.ibm.com/comm/research_people.nsf/pages/cowlishaw.index.html</a><br> <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Cowlishaw";>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Cowlishaw</a><br> <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.statemaster.com/encyclopedia/Mike-Cowlishaw";>http://www.statemaster.com/encyclopedia/Mike-Cowlishaw</a><br> <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://domino.research.ibm.com/comm/research_people.nsf/pages/cowlishaw.bio.html";>http://domino.research.ibm.com/comm/research_people.nsf/pages/cowlishaw.bio.html</a><br> <br> ...and that's only four out of 31,200 Google hits on "Mike Cowlishaw".<br> <br> His email address will be <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:m...@speleotrove.com";>m...@speleotrove.com</a>.<br> <pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">-- Gabriel Goldberg, Computers and Publishing, Inc. (703) 204-0433 3401 Silver Maple Place, Falls Church, VA 22042 <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:g...@gabegold.com";>g...@gabegold.com</a> LinkedIn: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/gabegold";>http://www.linkedin.com/in/gabegold</a> </pre> </body> </html> --------------000902010007050406040002--
