When I first started learning ooREXX (not that long ago, and I still don't know it well) I read that bit about "messages" that are apparently sent to methods and properties and was confused. My only object-oriented language at the time was VB (the VBA and VBS varieties), and I thought of methods as merely specialized function calls.
Really I still do, I guess. I told myself provisionally that the tilde in ooREXX is simply the equivalent of the period in a VBA method or property reference, and although I'm pretty sure that isn't the whole story I was at least able to continue on that basis. I keep reading descriptions like the below, though, thinking that more will sink in eventually. --- Bob Bridges, [email protected], cell 336 382-7313 /* This sad little lizard told me that he was a brontosaurus on his mother's side. I did not laugh; people who boast of ancestry often have little else to sustain them. Humoring them costs nothing and adds to happiness in a world in which happiness is always in short supply. -from the Notebooks of Lazarus Long */ -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Rony G. Flatscher Sent: Friday, January 7, 2022 07:57 * The tilde (~) is the ooRexx message operator; one can send messages to any value/object/instance in an ooRexx program. Left of the tilde is the receiving value/object/instance/receiver (these are synonyms), right of it the name of a method routine that conceptually the receiver is supposed to look up and invoke on behalf of the programmer. If the invoked method routine returns a result one can immediately send it a message too, if needed. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
