Preface; What This Book Is About; Who This Book Is For; What You Need To Know To Understand This Book - IBM SC34-5764-01 Manual

Preface

What this book is about

This book describes REXX/CICS or REXX for CICS Transaction Server for VSE/ESA. This IBM program
product provides a native REXX-based application development, customization, prototyping, and
procedures language environment for REXX/CICS, along with associated runtime facilities.

Who this book is for

This book is for users who need to refer to CICS Transaction Server for VSE/ESA REXX instructions and
functions, and for those who need to learn more details about REXX language items such as parsing. It is
also intended for anyone who wants to learn how to write REXX programs. The type of users include:
application programmers, system programmers, end users, administrators, developers, testers, and
support personnel.

What you need to know to understand this book

Within this book, reference may be made to Release 1. The function described in this book has
been added since the release of CICS Transaction Server for VSE/ESA Release 1 and can be
identified within the code as 1.1.1.
If you are not an experienced programmer, and are new to REXX, you should read the guide part of this
book, see page 1.
The book contains two parts: a user's guide and a reference. The user's guide section will help you
become familiar with REXX for CICS Transaction Server for VSE/ESA. The reference section contains the
CICS Transaction Server for VSE/ESA REXX instructions, functions, and commands. The instructions,
functions, and commands are listed alphabetically in their own sections. Also included are details about
general concepts you need to know in order to program in REXX.
The programming language described by this book is called the REstructured eXtended eXecutor
language (commonly referred to as REXX). This book also describes how the CICS Transaction Server for
VSE/ESA REXX language processor (shortened, hereafter, to the language processor) processes or
interprets the REstructured eXtended eXecutor language.

Prerequisites

REXX/CICS runs under CICS Transaction Server for VSE/ESA Version 1 or above. There are no other
prerequisites (other than the prerequisites that CICS TS for VSE/ESA requires).
xix
© Copyright IBM Corp. 1992, 2009