Appendix C. Comparisons Between Clist And Rexx - IBM TSO/E REXX User Manual

Appendix C. Comparisons Between CLIST and REXX

Accessing System Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
Controlling Program Flow
Debugging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
Execution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
Interactive Communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Passing Information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Performing File I/O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
Syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
Using Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
Using Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
Both the CLIST language and the REXX language can be used in TSO/E as
procedures languages. Some major features of REXX that are different from CLIST
are:
v Host command environments - TSO/E REXX has the ability to invoke commands
v Parsing capabilities - For separating data into variable names and formatting text,
v Use of a data stack - REXX offers the use of a data stack in which to store data.
v Use of mixed and lowercase characters - Although variables and most input are
In some ways CLIST and REXX are similar. The following tables show similarities
and differences in the areas of:
v Accessing system services
v Controlling program flow
v Debugging
v Execution
v Interactive communication
v Passing information
v Performing file I/O
v Syntax
v Using functions
v Using variables
© Copyright IBM Corp. 1988, 2001
from several environments in MVS and ISPF, as well as from TSO/E. The
ADDRESS instruction sets the environment for commands. For more information,
see "Issuing Other Types of Commands from an Exec" on page 101.
REXX provides extensive parsing through templates. For more information, see
"Parsing Data" on page 87.
For more information, see "Chapter 11. Storing Information in the Data Stack" on
page 135.
translated to uppercase, REXX provides ways to maintain mixed and lowercase
representation. For more information, see "Preventing Translation to Uppercase"
on page 20.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
197