Remember Rexx? It's the scripting language that Microsoft bundled in its Windows Resource Kits until the century turned.

When Windows NT and Windows 95 first came out, some IT professionals complained that the operating system didn't include a full-powered language for writing background scripts. Yes, Windows included Microsoft's batch language, a hold-over from DOS days, but many developers didn't see it as sufficient. The batch language was unstructured, sometimes difficult to read, and inflexible when writing long scripts.

Microsoft responded with several solutions. First, they bundled Rexx into the Windows Resource Kits. Rexx had a good reputation as a batch or "command language," having fulfilled this role with IBM mainframes for many years (Rexx was also the bundled scripting language for OS/2 and the Amiga OS). As a result, many Windows systems administrators wrote Rexx scripts to automate Windows tasks. You can easily get a taste for them; Microsoft provides free examples of over 120 Rexx admin scripts here.

Eventually, Microsoft introduced its current solution, the scripting framework based on Windows Script Host (WSH). While WSH supports multiple languages — including Rexx — VBScript quickly came to predominate. Rexx, the Windows and DOS batch languages, JScript, Perl, and other alternatives faded to minor roles.

Ever wonder what happened to Rexx? Does anyone use it on Windows? What interpreters and tools are available? This article gives you quick answers. It includes plenty of links to download free Rexx and tools or to pursue the topic further.