I'm at a loss as to why anybody would use OOREXX on platforms where
there are a multitude of better languages to chose from. If it's because
of familiarity coming from z/OS or z/VM then I would
advise them to take the time to learn something new. Most modern
scripting languages can be picked up in less then a day.
On 12/05/2018 12:13 AM, Seymour J Metz wrote:
I/O? The ANSI stream I/O functions are in OOREXX, as are equivalent methods.
--
Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz
http://mason.gmu.edu/~smetz3
________________________________________
From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <[email protected]> on behalf of John
McKown <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, May 11, 2018 12:07 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Heretic alert: I really detest TSO REXX (the language)
On Fri, May 11, 2018 at 10:41 AM, Kirk Wolf <[email protected]> wrote:
Yeah, I said it. I remember how fond I was of REXX when I first discovered
it VM/CMS in the 1980s, when big hair and mullets were also great.
Sure, on the surface it seems like a user friendly scripting language, but
IMO that is only true if you compare it to JCL, CLIST, RPGII, and Windows
"BAT". It does look much easier than the classic Unix shell, but not so
much in practice.
I recognize that many here have learned it really well and don't have to
think about all of the pitfalls and landmines. But please don't try to
tell new mainframers who have learned modern scripting languages how nice
it is :-)
The good:
- it is on every z/OS system, and it has a good set of system interfaces
("environments")
- it does have case-sensitive variable names, which maybe some people don't
like ;-)
The bad:
- a single data type (string)
- limited control flow statements; lack of short-cut boolean expressions
- compound variables - the only data structure you'll ever need?
- weird handling of undefined/omitted variables/args
- variable name scopes?
- packages/namespaces/libraries?
- purports to follow the principle of "least surprise", but I often find
the opposite
- slow (although that really isn't a language criticism)
TSO REXX needs to be allowed to quietly retire to a placid village
somewhere; turning the reigns of scripting on TSO & UNIX to "Object
Oriented REXX" (oorexx). Of course OOREXX would need to be enhanced with
the addition of ADDRESS TSO and ADDRESS SYSCALL as well as some way to do
I/O to z/OS data sets. I don't really care for EXECIO, but it is
acceptable.
ref:
http://secure-web.cisco.com/1h-uqbWNXqq1CuCFKDqzvqcBgRLzHQhOJdj2QPbZDjibdycV5-gSQ4zBsxF-ySP4yE3Gnt8Ci7-gFOQl1o0QfWxnGLIAnOWtWwjFiWyUO6_oelF6zzlfdVJQGh93pcQfmj1CKFH1yFltii1H6D55GHVqhlsQI5G4T4c_fzxq5jUS8tGqqG5f8RAtojricobH62fLXMveqVtA58NnnyEI8J5ZFDLn1euLi04N_1B_wwkslkM66qjWZUUUgKLQa9ysGVaz_dSEPSqD4Jy8wDlXsjlYE5gs0zv8KMeW2NdylohDK5PH2h3D1BO5nS9Xy3MWHsivQyqjUZNLcZBpCljXLtIOX4npezWZi40DpWGg9OVec3RcKEsxRLjrx3H32tSLSPkiR-hnnC1DcEu-XXmWaxCqwWfEkmVEWQrN7qwdK2pu0XeO_qZ8uCxzHK_BzA7cQ/http%3A%2F%2Foorexx.org%2Fdocs%2Frexxref%2Fbook1.htm
Kirk Wolf
Dovetailed Technologies
http://secure-web.cisco.com/1n0sGnuNhDW6q3fXx-PJT_zwbOkG5mdyrHujXRMNNl7mvKl5Xve_kqaLCr4c3THMnMEdrV1yAhJRWqk6ztNUqrFGZvoiNQUVtP_xSkRVWaaTzYQQvCyTbvlkQUXPnknsR22cMBQJERLsge_SWbQFs39npoYpHo3efptLwktjYxH3NX8PAK9oDvUHPpLBqrimbXG8ywzzNV_DFiUG3gntBT0E1P2p_TPl3grRW6PItAqncbeCMmsAOSgxehPiM6Jec5-t7r-EFbUooKlVkRd4jIoPs_SxfEXReTOJgloSU0-j82q4DY4B55eBqk1u4fT50E_97OkQxn5lRuHL36Xe3703XiFulTeLHG6xt1WgwuuybblSE2xcKi8oypvdR_E7UCmPexg4s8B8tstAk46elSl1OOCp4v7P4IKI2PwnsqKSsW93XDy3XJIQOALSAmaEO/http%3A%2F%2Fdovetail.com
--
We all have skeletons in our closet.
Mine are so old, they have osteoporosis.
Maranatha! <><
John McKown
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