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From: kenm@natinst.com (Ken McKinney)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.rexx
Subject: Re: AREXX vs REXX
Summary: REXX handling of I/O (IBM Version)
Message-ID: <4060@natinst.natinst.com>
Date: 16 Aug 89 18:00:24 GMT
References: <7841@ardent.UUCP>
Distribution: comp.lang.rexx
Organization: National Instruments, Austin, TX
Lines: 15


        IBM REXX (at least up to VM/SP 5.0) doesn't have any facilities
for reading files in it.  At IBM, we used the CMS EXECIO command or invoked
an XEDIT macro when we wanted to do file I/O (which was pretty much all the
time).  The EXECIO command was fairly primitive due to the limitations of
the CMS file structure; It couldn't read in less than a line at a time.  Of
course there was always XEDIT;  you could do almost anything with it.  XEDIT
blows VI away (and it has to work in block mode!).  It's the most customizable
editor I've ever seen, although I understand EMACS comes close.
REXX and XEDIT make a great team.  Does AREXX work well with the amiga editor?


Ken McKinney (ex REXX programmer)
National Instruments
 Austin, TX