REXX environment for Windows 7

Are there any decent free REXX environments (prefer compiler, but will live with an interpreter) for Windows 7? Much of my job is in writing and debugging REXX code, and if I could find a developer's kit for REXX that runs on my laptop, I'd be a happy guy...

Anyone?

Has anyone found a way to invoke a Rexx program on Windows 7 WITHOUT prefixing it with the interpreter's name or specifying the extension (.rexx)?
In other words, can I append .rexx to the list of valid Windows executables?
As an alternative, can I compile my rexx/regina code to an .exe file?

DocDJ said:

Has anyone found a way to invoke a Rexx program on Windows 7 WITHOUT prefixing it with the interpreter's name or specifying the extension (.rexx)?
In other words, can I append .rexx to the list of valid Windows executables?
As an alternative, can I compile my rexx/regina code to an .exe file?

Answered my own question: the following program, rxtest.cmd, will start as a DOS batch command, then run itself as a Regina/Rexx program in a command prompt window. It does not require typing the file extension, which must be ".cmd". No system changes are required. Sometimes known as dual-environment program.

@rem /* running a Rexx cmd
@echo off
if NOT "%1"=="1" regina rxtest.cmd 1
goto end
rem */
say "hello world"
say "first parameter must be 1. Real Rexx parameters must follow it."
/*
:end
rem */

Ztruker said:

I do something similar. Each Rexx program has a identically named .bat file that invokes it. For instance, I have a SyncMail.rexx program to keep E-mail between my laptop and dektop in sync. When I type syncmail, the batch file gets invoked.

syncmail.bat

Code:

@Echo off
rexx c:\rexxprogs\syncmail.rexx %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9

I originally thought about doing that, but wanted something self-contained. It's too bad WIndows doesn't let you specify the interpreter you want, like Linux does. At least I haven't found a way to do it.