NetRexx is now open source

NetRexx, a variant of the Rexx script language, developed by IBM, has been made open source software under the aegis of the Rexx Language Association (RexxLA). The first indication that the language was to be made open source came in February, but now the process has been completed.

NetRexx adds some object-oriented techniques to the Rexx language. It is compiled as Java byte code and then runs on practically any JVM, even on Google Android's Dalvik VM. NetRexx was developed in the mid-1990s; Rexx itself was created at the end of the 1970s and became popular at the beginning of the 1980s on OS/2 and Amiga in particular.

RexxLA says the language is to be published under the ICU licence, a variant based on the MIT license. Rene Vincent Jansen, president of the Rexx Language Association, hopes that new perspectives will open up for NetRexx as it becomes a much more widely used language under an open source licence (IBM speaks of an "effective alternative to the Java language" in its documentation).