In a recent note, Thomas Berg said:
> Date: Sun, 20 Aug 2006 00:24:19 +0200
> >>
> > o Absence of construct to pass arguments by reference.
>
> Right. Although I only really missed it when returning results sometimes.
>
Well, yes. That would be its use.
> >
> > o Absence of facility to enumerate members of a compound variable.
>
> Right, but is it really essential ? AFAICS, You can solve this
> quite easily programmatically. (Albeit clumsy.)
>
How? One can come close by coding a function package in some other
language, but if I understand correctly even that can't precisely
entirely copy a compound from one stem to another.
> > o Absence of construct to use expressions as compound tails
>
> Is that essential ? As You have the alternatives Value() or just
> evaluate the expression before using the compound.
>
Agreed, but it's a topic of intense discussion on the fora, even
if only because novices expect it, and are confused and irritated
when constructs they believe would have the effect behave otherwise.
I believe evaluating the expression into a temporary variable
works correctly; Value() doesn't because it evaluates its operand
according to Symbolic rules rather than Direct rules.
> > o Absence of instream data sets.
>
> I dont understand this one.
>
Was I unclear? Examples from other languages:
o JCL:
//SYSIN DD DATA,DLM=XX
...
XX
o POSIX Shell:
cat <<XX
...
XX
POSIX excels JCL in this respect because POSIX supports
symbol substitution in the "here-document". I've used sourceline()
to achieve the effect in Rexx.
> I think so. (Perhaps excluding "concurrent ATTCHPGM", but that's maybe
> because TSO don't permit that ?)
>
This is IBM-MAIN, not TSO-REXX. The base z/OS Rexx operates in
at least two z/OS environments other than TSO.
"[D]o[es]n't permit"? What happens if a program CALLed from TSO
issues an ATTACH SVC or several?
-- gil
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