Skip to Content
Rexx Programmer's Reference
book

Rexx Programmer's Reference

by Howard Fosdick
March 2005
Intermediate to advanced
720 pages
17h 35m
English
Wrox
Content preview from Rexx Programmer's Reference

Foreword

Rexx is a very underrated programming language; elegant in design, simple syntax, easy to learn, use and maintain, yet as powerful as any other scripting language available today.

In 1979, Mike Cowlishaw, IBM fellow, designed a "human-centric" programming language; Rexx. Cowlishaw's premise was that the programmer should not have to tell the interpreter what the language syntax was in each program they wrote; that was the job of the interpreter. So unlike most other programming languages, Rexx does not suffer from superfluous, meaningless punctuation characters throughout the code.

Since the release of Rexx outside of IBM, Rexx has been ported to virtually all operating systems and was formally standardised with the publishing of the ANSI Standard for Rexx in 1996. In late 2004, IBM transferred their implementation of Object REXX to the Rexx Language Association under an Open Source license. This event signalled a new era in the history of Rexx.

This book provides a comprehensive reference and programming guide to the Rexx programming language. It shows how to use the most popular implementations of Rexx and Rexx external function packages and is suited to both the programmer learning Rexx for the first time as well as the seasoned Rexx developer requiring a single, comprehensive reference manual.

Rexx has had a major influence on my life for the past 20 years since I wrote my first XEDIT macro in Rexx. In the last 10 years I have maintained the Regina Rexx interpreter, ably ...

Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.

Read now

Unlock full access

More than 5,000 organizations count on O’Reilly

AirBnbBlueOriginElectronic ArtsHomeDepotNasdaqRakutenTata Consultancy Services

QuotationMarkO’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.
Julian F.
Head of Cybersecurity
QuotationMarkI wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.
Addison B.
Field Engineer
QuotationMarkI’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.
Amir M.
Data Platform Tech Lead
QuotationMarkI'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.
Mark W.
Embedded Software Engineer

You might also like

ISPF Programmer’s Guide

ISPF Programmer’s Guide

Franz Lanz
Linux® on the Mainframe

Linux® on the Mainframe

John Eilert, Maria Eisenhaendler, Dorothea Matthaeus, Ingolf Salm
IMS Application Developer's Handbook

IMS Application Developer's Handbook

Rogier Noldus, Ulf Olsson, Catherine Mulligan, Ioannis Fikouras, Anders Ryde, Mats Stille
Modernizing Applications with IBM CICS

Modernizing Applications with IBM CICS

Russell Bonner, Sophie Green, Ezriel Gross, Jim Harrison, Debra Scharfstein, Will Yates

Publisher Resources

ISBN: 9780764579967Purchase book