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From: lindwall@beowulf.ucsd.edu (John Lindwall)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.programmer
Subject: Arexx programming help wanted
Message-ID: <18587@sdcc6.ucsd.edu>
Date: 23 Apr 91 19:48:31 GMT
Sender: news@sdcc6.ucsd.edu
Organization: CSE Dept., UC San Diego
Lines: 48

I'm having a great time learning Arexx -- its a refreshing change from C!
My current (and first) Arexx project is to add some functionality to the
CEDPro editor, and I had some novice-level questions for you Arexx-perts.

1> I have a function which accepts a string as an argument.  The function
   opens and file and searches through the file for the supplied string.
   My problem is that the function is receiving the string in upper-case,
   and I'd like the case preserved.  Its something like this:

	/* */
	call Lookup('UPPERandLowercase')
	exit

	Lookup:
	arg myString
			/* Open file and search for myString */
	say myString
	return

The output from this fragment is UPPERANDLOWERCASE.  How do I preserve case?

2> What kind of modularity can I get out of Arexx?  I plan to implement a
   collection of Arexx scripts which are invoked by various command keys
   from CEDPro.  All of these scripts will be making calls to a set of
   low-level primitives which I have implemented (e.g. Lookup(), above).
   Do I have to copy the entire set of primitive functions into each Arexx
   script file?  Is there a way (aside from writing an External Function
   Library) to maintain a collection of Arexx functions which can be called
   from various scripts?

3> I'm using CEDPro's getstring function to let the user enter a string.
   I'd like to pass a string for the DefaultTitle as well as an _empty_
   DefaultValue.  The syntax is: getstring DefaultValue DefaultTitle.
   I can't seem to successfully pass an empty string for the DefaultTitle
   no matter what horrendous quoting I try.  Currently I pass a string
   consisting of a single space for the DefaultValue, and then strip the
   space off of the return result; which is kind of lame-o.  How can I
   pass an empty string?

Thanks!

John

PS. When I'm done, I plan to distribute my package; in case others may
    find my scripts useful.  
-- 
John Lindwall			lindwall@cs.ucsd.edu
"Oh look at me! I'm all flooby! I'll be a son of a gun!" -- Flaming Carrot