On 2019-06-14, at 08:19:52, Phil Smith III wrote: > Gil wrote: >> Many years ago, I squandered a lot of coding effort to be able to run >> PEEK, XEDIT, FILELIST, RDRLIST, ... all in a single ring. > <snip> >> But I wished all along that IBM had designed all the XEDIT-based >> tools to operate in a single ring. > > That last sentence is six words too long :) > No, you're thinking of ISPF.
Item: When XEDIT invokes a macro, the initial addressing environment is, logically, XEDIT. When ISPF invokes a macro, the initial addresing environment is TSO, not ISREDIT. Item: A macro invoked by ISPF can't access its argument with PARSE ARG. Item: ISPF is enirely compound symbol ignorant. To GET/PUT multiple records the programmer must use the cumbersome MULTX protocol. Item: CMS ISPF is worse. I found ADDRESS ISREDIT MACRO produced a syntax error but ADDRESS ISREDIT ISREDIT MACRO worked. Long ago; perhaps it's been fixed. Item: I could leave my office, inadvertently leaving an XEDIT session running. At home I reconnected with a different terminal geometry. XEDIT queried the screen size and redrew the screen, losing only uncommitted changes to the screen. When I wish for similar facility in ISPF, I'm called absurdly unrealistic. It feels as if ISPF developers accepted Rexx unwittingly with an attitude approaching sabotage. > Really NOT complaining/criticizing, more noting that the XEDIT-based tools > are using it well beyond its design parameters! APAR VM20779 back in the day > VM20779? Wayback Machine? GIYF? Not. > was major surgery and did a lot to make such applications more usable, but > since XEDIT was never intended to be a display manager, it's hard to feel > like its limitations in that area are failings. > > Gil knows this, I'm sure, and I share his sentiments. Just noting that it's > pretty impressive that XEDIT is even as usable as it is in this mode of > operation! > Circa 1985 we had been using, in a small way, an ISV display manager (XMENUE?) when one user had a need to upgrade from CMS/370 to CMS/XA. Our minor use didn't justify the cost of upgrading the display manager; I converted to XEDIT. Function improved. I could rely on XEDIT facilities to scroll text entry boxes; insert/delete lines (relates to the OP's requirement), etc. Impressive indeed. -- gil
