The one thing I missed from CLIST was the ability to run a CLIST under TEST, issue TEST commands from that CLIST, and process the output from them. Everything else I did with Rexx, or compiled code.
Roops That's a bit of a niche, maybe, when there are better debuggers, but it was the only way to make progress at one company. On Fri, 10 Jan 2025, 21:14 Bill Hitefield, <bill.hitefi...@dino-software.com> wrote: > David, > > Understood. I use REXX extensively for ISPF edit macros and such. I was > agreeing that there were some "nice to have things" which clist did have. > When I started, clist was the only way to go. Once we were introduced to > REXX, I began converting clists to EXECs, and found WRITENR was a "clist > only" entity. I agree with others in that the clist "PROC" could have been > useful in REXX. I suspect most of us have written some sort of > general-purpose parsing logic for use in REXX. > > At this point, I have only a handful of clists which are still in use. > Most are "1 time only" type things and are not worth converting. > > Bill Hitefield > Dino-Software Corporation > 800.480.DINO > www.dino-software.com > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU> On > > Behalf Of David Spiegel > > Sent: Thursday, January 9, 2025 7:26 PM > > To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU > > Subject: Re: ISREDIT CAPS ON OFF > > > > Hi Bill, > > I also have an Exec which calls my Writenr clist.. My point was counter > the > > idea that with Rexx, CLISTs are never necessary. > > > > Regards, > > David > > > > On 2025-01-09 19:18, Bill Hitefield wrote: > > > I wrote a dinky CLIST to issue WRITENR. I call it from REXX as needed. > > > > > > Bill Hitefield > > > > > >> -----Original Message----- > > >> From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU> On > > >> Behalf Of David Spiegel > > >> Sent: Thursday, January 9, 2025 5:42 PM > > >> To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU > > >> Subject: Re: ISREDIT CAPS ON OFF > > >> > > >> Hi Tony, > > >> CLISTs also have the WRITENR statement, which Rexx lacks. > > >> > > >> Regards,. > > >> David > > >> > > >> On 2025-01-09 16:49, Tony Harminc wrote: > > >>> On Wed, 8 Jan 2025 at 19:51, Lennie Bradshaw > > >>> <lennie-brads...@outlook.com> > > >>> wrote: > > >>> > > >>>> CLIST design is over 50 years old I think. > > >>>> > > >>> CLISTs as we know them arrived with OS VS/2 Release 3, so the second > > >>> release of MVS around 1974 or so. Before that, on e.g MVT, SVS, and > > >>> the first MVS, CLISTs had no control flow statements - they were > > >>> just lists of commands with some substitution for arguments. > > >>> > > >>> At introduction, everyone was all excited at the shiny new CLISTs, > > >>> and I remember well wondering why there was no lower case support, > > >>> and if it could be easily fixed. Indeed it could, and I found and > > >>> happily zapped out the upcasing and tried a CLIST with some lower > > >>> case text in it. It blew up all over the place, and I discovered > > >>> that pretty much all byte values beyond the upper case letters, > > >>> numbers, and a few more (i.e. roughly the JCL character set at the > > >>> time) was being used as internal syntactic markers for various > > >>> aspects of the language. So much for > > >> that quick fix. > > >>> No, I don't remember the details, but I imagine much of today's > > >>> CLIST processor is unchanged from the 1970s version, and the source > > >>> code for that is available if anyone wants to research it further. > > >>> > > >>> But seriously, why does anyone use CLISTs today? There is to my > > >>> knowledge just one reason: there is tight integration with TSO > > >>> parsing and the CLIST header, whereas REXX requires that the command > > >>> be treated as a single string, and then parsed with the (unarguably > > >>> powerful) > > >> REXX parsing scheme. > > >>> But that doesn't allow for a syntax error to be discovered in the > > >>> REXX and the user prompted using TSO facilities; the REXX has to do > > >>> all the work itself. > > >>> > > >>> Tony H. > > >>> > > >>> -------------------------------------------------------------------- > > >>> -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > > >>> send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO > > >>> IBM-MAIN > > >> --------------------------------------------------------------------- > > >> - For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > > >> send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO > > >> IBM-MAIN > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send > > > email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN > > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send > email to > > lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
