Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!van-bc!rsoft!mindlink!a218
From: a218@mindlink.UUCP (Charlie Gibbs)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.tech
Subject: Re: REXX command standards
Message-ID: <3800@mindlink.UUCP>
Date: 12 Nov 90 14:49:27 GMT
Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada
Lines: 49

In article <1990Nov12.224249.18759@sisd.kodak.com> jeh@sisd.kodak.com
(Ed Hanway) writes:

>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.

     Actually, how does this differ from having to know what the
editor's REXX port is called?  Is there any standardization there
either?

     As nice as standardization might be, I'm not holding my breath.
However, a good alternative would be to allow each program to be
configured as to what the REXX commands are.  If a program can read
from a configuration file or environment variable just what your
favourite editor wants to hear to jump to a certain line or whatever,
the problem disappears.  (Actually, you still have to set up the
configuration file, but I can see people exchanging popular ones
via the net.  For that matter, a considerate supplier could even
provide several with a software package.)

     In time, standard commands might shake out and the problem will
subside.  But for now, the extra flexibility of configurable REXX
commands sounds like the only way to go.

Charlie_Gibbs@mindlink.UUCP
The only things to survive a nuclear war will be cockroaches and IBM PCs.
        -- Larry Phillips

Any radiation-induced quirks in those PCs will no doubt be defined
by Microsoft as new features.
        -- me