REXL

In 1993, I happened upon an interesting programming language called RExL. This langauge is designed for building DOS front-ends to DBF files. It's amazingly good at this task.

Here is an excerpt from its documentation:

RExL, short  for  Rule-base  EXpert  Language  is  a  fourth
generation language  product  for  PC  compatible  computers
which  is  based  upon   the  expert  system'   programming
paradigm. It allows the applications developer to  prototype
applications rapidly and easily, while producing code  which
is easy to follow and  understand. RExL comprises an  editor
for creating and modifying applications and a runtime module
with incorporated  debugger  for  testing  and  running  the
resulting application.

RExL was developed with the following goals in mind:

    o  Ease of  use: Menus  and pop-up  lists are  available
       times through hotkeys for experienced users, and  via
       pulldown menus for those  not so familiar with  RExL.
       Online context-sensitive,  cross referenced  help  is
       available at all times to the user.
				
    o  Integrity: RExL was conceived as a single unit,  with
       all features   intimately connected together,  unlike
       traditional languages  where   editors and  debuggers
       are general  purpose  tools  and not  tailored    for
       specific languages.
			    
    o  Power: RExL not only has a powerful internal language
       with 178  functions available  but also  has a  fully
       integrated  screen  designer  and  dBase   compatible
       database module.		    

I started writing a program to replace something we were using at the place I worked at the time, but I never really finished it. Anyway, here it is.

As far as I know, RExL has not been updated since 1992, so it's here more as a historical curiousity than something i'd really recommend using. It is pretty neat though.
Josh Wilmes
Last modified: Sun Oct 31 13:21:49 PST 1999