Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!ub!uhura.cc.rochester.edu!rochester!kodak!sisd!jeh
From: jeh@sisd.kodak.com (Ed Hanway)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.tech
Subject: REXX command standards
Message-ID: <1990Nov12.224249.18759@sisd.kodak.com>
Date: 12 Nov 90 22:42:49 GMT
Sender: news@sisd.kodak.com
Organization: Printer Products Division Eastman Kodak
Lines: 25

In an unrelated thread, someone (sorry, lost the attribution) writes:
[on integrating CEDPro instead of LSE into the SAS/C environment]
>I guess the problem with using other editors is that they may not have
>the same AREXX commands for moving to a specific line or whatever.  

Until developers get together and start standardizing their REXX interfaces,
this is an unfortunate fact of life.  Off the top of my head, I can think of
at least 4 or 5 text editors with REXX support, and they all apparently use
different commands to do more or less the same thing.  The situation is no
different for terminal programs, or for any other application where more than
one vendor includes REXX support.

Of course, each program is unique, but there should be some standardization
of a common subset of commands for each application.  Presently, every good
idea for a REXX program (like instant man pages in your editor, or automated
BIX access, or whatever) must be implemented four or five times.

It would really be nice if I could just drop any editor conforming to an
"AREXX editor command set" into the SAS/C environment.  It seems to me like
these standards should be just as important as data format standards like IFF.

--
Ed Hanway   uunet!sisd!jeh
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