Michael Schmitt wrote, in part: >REXX is so much better but I want to ask Mike Cowlishaw >what he was thinking in making uninitialized variables >default to their own name.
While as a programmer I agree with you, I'm pretty sure I know the answer: Rexx was designed to be usable by non-programmers, who would not be expected to understand what's a variable and what's not. In this model, a Rexx EXEC is closer to a list of commands (hmm, whatever could we call such a language?) than a program. Remember, VM was the original personal computing environment, long before PCs. As for whether he ultimately regretted the decision or not, I could ask him but I suspect the existence of SIGNAL ON NOVALUE is an answer of sorts. And SIGNAL ON NOVALUE-especially with the ability to trap it and report what the variable was-is a perfect programmer-y answer, no? And thus fits the model of non-programmers being the target/default user. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
