Dr. Dobb's Journal January, 2005
by Shannon CochranIBM has released Object Rexx to the non-profit group RexxLA (http://www.rexxla.org/), which will manage Object Rexx as an open-source project under the Common Public License.
Rexx was designed by IBM's Mike Cowlishaw to combine the simplicity of macro languages such as EXEC 2 with the power and flexibility of procedural languages such as PL/I. Rexx was shipped to IBM customers in 1983 with the third release of IBM's VM/System Product and quickly gained a following. Cowlishaw says about the history of Rexx, "The first Rexx compiler was developed at IBM's Vienna Laboratory, following research by the IBM Haifa Scientific Center, and was delivered to customers in 1989. By 1990, there was sufficient interest in the language to justify the first international Rexx Symposium for Developers and Users, organized by the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center in California. This symposium has been held annually since then" (http://www-306.ibm.com/software/awdtools/rexx/library/ rexxhist.html). Rexx eventually became part of the base OS/2 product.
Object Rexx, the object-oriented version of Rexx, was developed in the late 1990s and is upward-compatible with classic Rexx. IBM developed implementations of Object Rexx for Windows, OS/2, AIX, and Linux, and provided interfaces for DB2, C, and C++ applications. RexxLA, the Rexx Language Association, was involved in drafting the first ANSI standard for Rexx in 1996. The group is now working with ANSI to define a Standard for Object Rexx and NetRexx (a version of Rexx for the Java platform).
In the wake of a report charging that their overseas workers "suffer harassment, discrimination, and intolerable working conditions," Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and Dell have pledged to abide by a code of conduct respecting workers' rights, environmental standards, and fair business practices (http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/globalcitizenship/environment/pdf/supcode.pdf).
The Catholic Agency for Overseas Development, a British nonprofit group, singled out the three companies in its report, "Clean Up Your Computer" (http://www.cafod.org.uk/news_and_events/news/ computer_factory_sweatshops_20040126). "CAFOD has proof that electronic workers in Mexico, Thailand, and China suffer harassment, discrimination, and intolerable working conditions," the agency announced. "The workers produce parts that end up in the computers of companies such as Hewlett-Packard, Dell, and IBM."
The new "Electronic Industry Code of Conduct" was drafted by HP, IBM, and Dell in collaboration with their manufacturing partners: Celestica, Flextronics, Jabil, Sanmina SCI, and Solectron. Along with setting out health and safety standards and a list of workers' rights, the code states that "adverse effects on the environment and natural resources are to be minimized" and that "corruption, extortion, and embezzlement are strictly prohibited."
CAFOD's Private Sector Policy Analyst Anne Lindsay responded in a prepared statement: "What matters is improving the situation on the factory floor. There's not much detail in the code on how change will actually be achieved. We'll be looking to the participating companies for evidence that their suppliers meet the standards set out here."
Dr. Fran Allen of IBM and Karen Banks, coordinator of the APC Women's Networking Support Program in London, are the recipients of the first Anita Borg Awards for women in technology (http://www.anitaborg.org/). The newly founded awards are designed to be bestowed in pairs; one honors technical leadership, and the other social impact. Each is accompanied by a $10,000 prize.
The first Anita Borg Award for Technical Leadership, underwritten by Greg Papadopoulos, was given to Allen for her work on the theory of program optimization, for leading the PTRAN (Parallel Translations) project, and for mentoring other researchers. Allen was the first woman to be named an IBM Fellow; she was also elected president of the IBM Academy of Technology and has been a member of the National Academy of Engineering. She has been inducted into the Women in Technology International Hall of Fame, and she has also received the ACM SIGPLAN's Programming Languages Achievement Award. The Anita Borg Award for Social Impact, underwritten by Microsoft, went to Karen Banks, the global Coordinator for APC Women's Networking Support Program for working "successfully around the globe to bring the use of Information Communication Technologies to underserved women and communities as a tool for women's empowerment, gender equality, social action and positive social change."