Excerpted from message dated 09-04-94, David Noon to Murray Lesser:

DN>If you buy PL/I for OS/2 "Personal Edition" or
"Professional Edition"
  >(there is a BIG difference in price) you will receive much newer
  >hard-copy manuals with the product. There is also sample code
  >included with the retail product. You will need to buy the PL/I
  >Toolkit as well to get the REXX interface (and PM interface, etc.)
  >include files. I believe IBM is making the PL/I range of products
  >available through Indelible Blue and/or The Corner Store, so RSN you
  >should not have to pay IBM's list price.
  >
DN>If you need any help with PL/I syntax and semantics, I am more than
  >willing to assist you or anybody else and can be reached here on
  >FidoNet, on the IBM PCC BBS, or you can use Section 6 of OS2DF1 on
  >Compuserve to address problems directly to IBM Santa Teresa Labs (the
  >developers of the PL/I compiler).
  >

Hi Dave--

    Yesterday, I received volume 5 of DevCon.  Lo and behold!  It
contains "evaluation" copies of PL/I "Professional"
edition and PL/I
Toolkit.  According to the READ.MEs, it is supposed to vanish (or
something) after 60 days.  Even if it does, it surely is a cheap way to
find out if I want to keep living with the language.  I vote with Peter
F:  All members of this echo should subscribe to DevCon.

    The Toolkit apparently contains only a "visual" development
environment for PM programming, neither of which interest me.  It also
contains revised header files to be copied to the compiler's "include"
directory, thereby updating the header files by one month.  The compiler
header files include the usual OS/2 API interfaces.  The evaluation
toolkit does _not_ contain the utility to convert C header files to PL/I
format.  There is no header named "REXXSAA" but one of the compiler
"Samples" shows the REXX to PL/I interface.

    I assume that you already know all this, or will soon, but I thought
it might be of interest to other followers of this thread.  I am a
member of DAP at the lowest possible level (program for my one-man
company's internal use only).  Even so, when I renewed my subscription
to get the next four volumes, I was offered the $119(US) price (plus
shipping).

    I may be calling on your help, yet!  Thanks.

               --Murray

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