REXX Topics

        Alan Winson

We were considering presenting some REXX classes or seminars. Instead, we are covering these topics 20-30 minutes at a time at our weekly technical meetings. REXX is available with CMS, OS/2, TSO, Unix, and other platforms.
We may cover the platform-independent aspects of REXX separately from platform-specific coding. Prior knowledge of REXX is not a prerequisite.

Although each class generally builds on previous classes, it is not necessary to attend all the classes. Some people may be interested only in certain topics.

If there is a topic that interests you that is not in the outline, please let us know.

Note: horizontal rules below indicate stopping points in the mini-seminars given.

  1. Fundamentals, part 1
    1. What is REXX?
      1. Predecessors
      2. Design goals
        1. Ease of use and readability
        2. Natural data typing
      3. Uses
        1. Command language, macros, prototyping
        2. General-purpose 3GL
      4. Sources of information
    2. Structure of REXX programs
      1. Mixed case
      2. Comments, null clauses, labels
      3. Continuations and semicolons
      4. Instructions
        1. Assignments
        2. Keyword instructions (e.g., say, pull, arg, if, do)
        3. Commands
    3. Expression evaluation, part 1
      1. Literals
      2. Symbols
      3. Operators
      4. Concatenation
    4. Expression evaluation, part 2
      1. Numbers
      2. Variables
      3. Functions
      4. Quotes, blanks, case: meaning, efficiency, clarity
    5. Built-in functions (substr, length)
  2. Fundamentals, part 2
    1. Handling errors (rc, exit, signal on error)
    2. Do loops
    3. Numerically-indexed compound variables
    4. Data conversion
    5. Data validation
    6. Built-in i/o functions
    7. Interactive tracing
  3. Subprograms
    1. User-written functions
    2. Subroutines
    3. Multiple operands
    4. Scope of variables
    5. States saved and restored
    6. Search order
  4. Advanced features, part 1
    1. Normal and strict comparisons
    2. Large numbers
    3. Parsing templates
    4. Stems and arbitrarily-indexed compound variables
    5. Conditions (novalue, halt, syntax)
    6. Special variables sigl and result
  5. Platform-dependent features
    1. Header and character-set variations
    2. Determining the environment
    3. Addressing environments
    4. Implementation-dependent functions
    5. Stacks
    6. Commands
    7. Using REXX under CMS at Amdahl
      1. Communicating with CMS
      2. Communicating with CP
      3. AHSIM CMS 4
      4. AHSIM CMS 6
        1. Compiled REXX
        2. A word about CMS Pipelines
      5. CCCVM CMS 10 and beyond
  6. Advanced features, part 2
    1. Interpret instruction and value function
    2. CMS: address environment for ERASE, STATE, LISTFILE, RENAME
    3. CMS: GLOBALV command and value function
    4. CMS: XEDIT macros
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