Performance reasons. Without the quotes REXX first interprets MVS as a variable name, which (probable) has not been set, so takes on the value of the variable name in caps. By putting it in caps, and enclosing it in quotes, I save REXX a few steps and it goes directly to the MVS ADDRESS environment to find the EXECIO function.
Back in the MVS & MVS/XA Days, these types of performance optimizations were actually quite noticeable. Today, you need to do quite a number of them, in a large loop, to see the difference. So today, it is mostly just my fingers memory and for documentation purposes (it sticks out visually more). I similarly “always” capitalize REXX Key words, to save REXX from having to spend cycles actually FOLDING then up. Old habits, but again I think more readable. Sent via Al Ferguson’s iPad > On Nov 23, 2020, at 19:57, Peter Vels <peter.v...@gmail.com> wrote: > > x all 'foo bar' > del all x > > >> On Tue, 24 Nov. 2020, 11:25 Paul Gilmartin, < >> 0000000433f07816-dmarc-requ...@listserv.ua.edu> wrote: >> >> >> >> Example: if I want to delete >> several lines containing "foo bar" in vi: >> ... >> in ISPF Edit (I think): >> <HOME> >> x all<ENTER> >> f 'foo bar'<ENTER> >> del all<ENTER> >> reset<ENTER> >> >> Is there a better way? >> > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
