REXXLIB for OS/2

Detailed information on REXXLIB

Overview: essential library functions for REXX

REXX is a great language, and its availability for OS/2 is a big plus for OS/2. However, it falls short of its full potential for enhancing your productivity under OS/2 because it lacks certain very key functions - things like sorting, mathematics, interprocess communication, date handling, and user interfacing.

Quercus Systems has been involved with REXX since 1985, so we understand very well how people use REXX and the sorts of capabilities they need in REXX. We have worked hard to include these things in our Personal REXX product. When IBM came out with a REXX implementation for OS/2, we noted with some interest that almost all of these essential functions were not there.

So we decided to do something about it: REXXLIB. This is a package of all the most important functions from our DOS and OS/2 versions of Personal REXX - and a large number of new ones we've added to take full advantage of the tremendous power of OS/2 2.0. There are over 150 functions altogether.

REXXLIB is a standard part of our latest release of Personal REXX for OS/2. While we feel that many people will choose Personal REXX because of the significant advantages it has over the plain vanilla REXX which comes with OS/2, we want to help REXX succeed in OS/2 by offering this package of functions to everyone.

Quick summary of contents

Stem/array functions. Think how often you have wanted a convenient way to find out all the "tails" of a given compound variable, or sort a whole array, or copy it to another stem, or save the whole array in a disk file.
Mathematical functions. REXX comes with great "infinite" precision arithmetic, but it has no support at all for common functions like square root, exponential (non-integral power), logarithms, or trig functions. REXXLIB offers these functions for up to 15 digits of precision
Interprocess communication. One of the stand-out features of OS/2 is its wide array of interprocess communication facilities, which are so useful in building applications using a client-server model. REXXLIB now lets REXX programs use some of these tools, like semaphores and named pipes.
OS/2 system services. REXXLIB lets REXX programs list file extended attributes, list running processes, change file dates or sizes, test the validity of file names, and much more.

In more detail...

REXXLIB contains over 150 functions, many of which have multiple subfunctions. Numbers alone don't tell the whole story, of course, since REXXLIB, like the REXX language itself, has been designed to package functionality in the most logical and useful way, rather than merely offer a large number of poorly chosen and poorly organized functions.

The following sections can list only some of the more noteworthy capabilities provided.

Stem/array functions

Copy or insert elements of one array into another
Delete a range of elements from an array
Sort an array, using multiple fields in each element
List all "tails" of a compound variable (with optional selection based on regular expression pattern matching)
Write collections of variables to a file and read them back

Interprocess communication

Create, post, reset, query, or wait on an event semaphore
Create, release, request, or query a mutual exclusion semaphore
Create, connect, disconnect, query, or wait on a named pipe

Mathematical functions

Trigonometric functions: sin, cos, tan, acos, asin, atan
Hyperbolic functions: cosh, sinh, tanh
Logarithm, exponential, power functions
Miscellaneous: erf, erfc, gamma

Operating system and other services

Convert dates between any standard REXX formats (which permits date arithmetic)
List all extended attributes of a file
List all processes running in the system
Query and change file dates, sizes, and attributes
Parse file names, test file name validity, or do wildcard editing of file names
Read or write a whole file to or from a REXX array
Search for all file records containing a string or regular expression pattern
Calculate the CRC of a file
Work with REXX "macro spaces"

User interface

Read or write directly to the screen (text mode)
Build and display menus, windows, and data entry panels (text mode)
Read user input with cursor and editing control

Compatibility

Except for certain functions which are included for compatibility with Personal REXX, REXXLIB takes account of functions already available in IBM's OS/2 REXX and REXXUTIL and does not unnecessarily duplicate services.

REXXLIB functionality is included with Personal REXX for OS/2 and is designed to be a fully compatible add-on function package for IBM's OS/2 REXX.

Ordering information

REXXLIB is available directly from Quercus Systems at $50 for one copy, with manual and full support. Add $5 for shipping and handling in North America, and $10 for shipping elsewhere. We accept MC, VISA, AmEx, and checks for U. S. funds drawn on a U. S. bank. Call for approval of purchase orders.

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Last updated: October 24, 1995