On Friday, 1994-09-23  Murray Lesser wrote to David Noon about "Pl/i"
as follows:

ML>     Yesterday, I received volume 5 of DevCon.  Lo and behold!  It
ML> contains "evaluation" copies of PL/I
"Professional" edition and
ML> PL/I Toolkit.  According to the READ.MEs, it is supposed to vanish
ML> (or something) after 60 days.  Even if it does, it surely is a cheap
ML> way to find out if I want to keep living with the language.  I vote
ML> with Peter F:  All members of this echo should subscribe to DevCon.
ML> 
ML>     The Toolkit apparently contains only a "visual" development
ML> environment for PM programming, neither of which interest me.  It
ML> also contains revised header files to be copied to the compiler's
ML> "include" directory, thereby updating the header files by one month.
ML>  The compiler header files include the usual OS/2 API interfaces. 
ML> The evaluation toolkit does _not_ contain the utility to convert C
ML> header files to PL/I format.  There is no header named "REXXSAA" but
ML> one of the compiler "Samples" shows the REXX to PL/I interface.

Hi Murray,

Header files? HEADER FILES??!!!
PUUUUUHHHHLEEEEEEEEEEZE!!!! 

In PL/I they are called %INCLUDE files, or "copybooks" (legacy term
from COBOL). We aren't in C any more. They are not required to be
placed at the head of the program text. Indeed, many old time
FORTRANers (Who? Moi?) put them at the bottom, especially if they
contain the subroutine's source code, because in FORTRAN subroutines
and functions normally go after the main program, not before it.
Indeed, in PL/I you don't have to declare any entity before you use it;
provided you declare it somewhere within the scope of its usage the
attributes will be set correctly; if you don't declare it the
attributes defined in the currently scoped DEFAULT statement or the
language defaults will apply.

I also found the demo compiler and toolkit on Dev Conn Vol. 5.
However, since I own a copy of the retail products I haven't bothered
installing them. I also renewed my Dev Conn subscription today at
$119+tax&tag. I agree that such a subscription should be a prerequisite
for participation in this echo - no Dev Conn means only lurking
allowed! 

You'll find the REXX interface a real breeze in PL/I, since REXX is
all character string driven and PL/I handles these with great applomb.
I just hope that the documentation is also on the Dev Conn CD. If not,
you can always post a message here asking for assistance or
suggestions.

Regards

Dave

 * KWQ/2 1.2g * Multitasking: Make twice the mistakes in half the time.

--- Maximus/2 2.01wb