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From: jpl@charming.nrtc.northrop.com (Jeff Lankford)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.rexx
Subject: Re: need a REXX-flavored version of getopt()
Summary: I have one, what have you got to trade?
Message-ID: <9091@gremlin.nrtc.northrop.com>
Date: 28 Aug 90 21:31:18 GMT
References: <LYNN.90Aug27090555@jazz.phx.mcd.mot.com>
Sender: news@gremlin.nrtc.northrop.com
Reply-To: jlankford@nrtc.northrop.com (Jeffrey P. Lankford)
Distribution: comp
Organization: Northrop Research & Technology Center, Palos Verdes, CA
Lines: 24

In article <LYNN.90Aug27090555@jazz.phx.mcd.mot.com> lynn@phx.mcd.mot.com (Lynn D Newton) writes:
>Has anyone out there in REXX-land written a function that more or
>less duplicates the functionality of the UNIX getopt() library
>call, which parses command line values in the same way (from a
>black box point-of-view) as is customarily done in UNIX?

I have several VM/CMS REXX scripts that emulate a number of Unix commands.
To support this, I implemented several common library functions, of which
getopt(3) was one (I slightly expanded the acceptable input syntax).  I
also implemented the getopt(1) command, which essentially just invokes the
getopt(3) function.

I suppose you want Arexx for MeSsy-DOS, but I imagine that any conversion
would be trivial, since my getopt(3) function uses standard built-in
functions to manipulate strings.  It's fairly trivial (about 70 lines
including comments) and you could probably implement one from scratch.
However, I'm feeling in a mercenary mood today, so I'll require a nifty*
function in exchange before I distribute.

* nifty: something that helps change the archaic IBM environment
         into a useful contemporary programming environment.

Jeff Lankford           Northrop Research and Technology Center
213/544-5394            One Research Park, Palos Verdes Peninsula, CA 90274