RE: What is Rexx? (Was: Outputting a very specific character)

Simon,
Yay! In all my years with AS/400 it's refreshing to finally discover a
fellow REXX disciple.
May REXX be with you,
Peter Connell

-----Original Message-----
From: Simon Coulter [mailto:shc@flybynight.com.au]
Sent: Friday, July 28, 2000 12:10 PM
To: RPG400-L@midrange.com
Subject: What is Rexx? (Was: Outputting a very specific character)


Ð
Hello Rob,

You wrote:
>What member type is this, REXX?

Rexx is the SAA Procedure Language.  It has been available on the AS/400
since at least 
VRM130 -- a looooong time.  It is singularly underrated and ignored by most
AS/400 
programmers.  It has better string handling than CL, better loop control,
supports 
subroutines, and is available on all IBM platforms and there are even
versions of it for 
Microsquib's so-called operating systems.  The PC versions also have an
object-oriented 
dialect (ObjectRexx) and there is a version that works with the Web
(NetRexx).

You can imbed CL commands, run SQL, and slice and wrap cheese (OK, I lied
about the last 
part).  Rexx is well worth a look.  Trivial examples follow:

<-------------- example 1 ----------------->
parse source system .

arg user
say system
select
       when system = 'OS/400' then 'dspusrprf usrprf('user')'
       otherwise say 'don''t know the system'
end

<------------- example 2 ------------------->

/* Rexx the wonder dog */
tally = 0;
number = 0;
say ' ';
say date('w') center("System Calculator", 54) date();
say ' ';
say "Type an arithmetical expression, RESET, or press Enter to end.";
say ' ';
do n = 1 to 400;
  pull expression;
  if expression = '' then exit(0);
  interpret tally = expression;
  if expression = 'RESET' | ,
     expression = 'R'     | ,
     expression = 'r' then tally = 0;
  say expression " = " tally;
end


Regards,
Simon Coulter.

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