rexxsyslib.library

it may have been asked before, but can someone explain to me why rexxsyslib.library is the only 68k library in libs according to sysmon?
if i move it into storage the OS wont startup
plain English would be appreciated, thanks in advance

@Swisso

SysMon is listing the libraries that have been loaded into memory and are in use, rexxsyslib.library being Arexx, which is still 68k. I would guess that you are running an Arexx script at boot-up, either in startup-sequence or WBStartup. That would explain why moving it out causes a boot failure; whatever it is can't run arexx and is hanging the boot process.

@daveyw
thanks for your reply, it explains the boot hang-up, i am surprised that it is the only library on the system disk which is 68k, all others are ppc. Maybe it just doesnt port

OS4 relies more heavily on ARexx than OS3 does. I believe this is still 68k because of copyright or ownership restrictions that prevent the development team from porting it to PowerPC.

@daveyw

Quote:I think it's more likely to be the line starting RexxMast, which is the "daemon" making ARexx available to the system.

Best regards,

Niels

@nbache

Quote:

I did consider that, but one would hope that the out-of-the-box OS would be able to handle that scenario more gracefully than bring boot to a grinding halt.

@Swisso

Quote:
According to the ARexx manual, ARexx is written in 68K assembly language. That had advantages in both speed and size back when ARexx was written, but would make porting to PPC impractical.

@ all'
thankyou for the info, much appreciated

@all

IIRC, CBM licensed ARexx from the original porter of IBM's REXX
to the Amiga back in the early days - William Hawes.

But then, like with the speach-synth s/w, CBM tried to play fast
and loose with the devs with later OS versions, lost and then
they could only use the binaries they already had.

As a result the original 68K bits of ARexx and speach remain
trapped in ice. Anyone wanna start new PPC native replacements,
like the console? ;D

@davyw

I'm not sure how many OS's would elegantly deal with a user
randomly moving chunks of the OS out their proper locations.
If one starts removing parts from the OS, it's on moving man to
deal with the consequences, isn't it?

Thanks,

PJS

@pjs
Quote:That may have been the case for ARrex (not sure, maybe instead it was just to much work porting m68k asm code to AmigaOS 4.x/PPC nobody wanted to do and therefor there is still no PPC native ARexx), but for narrator.device and translator.library there wasn't even a licence to continue using the old binaries and it had to be removed completely from AmigaOS. IIRC that predated not only AmigaOS 4.x, but 3.9, 3.5, 3.1 and 3.0 already, or even 2.1, and the last AmigaOS version with narrator.device and translator.library included might have been AmigaOS 2.04.
For AmigaOS 2.1 (and newer), which added localization support, at least new versions of translator.library, supporting the different langues, would have been required.
Just like Hyperion had no licences to use any of the AmigaOS 3.5 and 3.9 software owned by Haage&Partner for AmigaOS 4.x (with some small exceptions, by getting licences from their developers directly instead), for example no 3.5/3.9 HDToolBox and the independently developed MediaToolBox had to be used instead, nor has licences any more for very large former parts of AmigaOS 4.x.

As for ARexx maybe porting (or just updating? Amiga and AROS are mentioned as supported target platforms) the Regina REXX might be an option for a PPC native AmigaOS 4.x ARexx replacement?