This whole post was fascinating me, partly because I'm still a novice at
ooRexx, still wrapping my head around certain concepts (messaging being one
example). I may as well say, though, that when I finally broke down and got
myself a copy, I then took not one hour but two or three days off to read the
documentation before I started writing the program I had in mind. There was so
much more to it than I expected, having believed that it would be simply
TSO-REXX with object support.
Messaging...As I said, I'm still wrapping my head around that. I'm used to
creating classes and then invoking their methods; to use the term "message" in
this connection causes my brain to pause temporarily. So far the only thing
I've worked out is that messaging ~is~ invoking a class' method, that is, it's
just another way of saying the same thing. But the way you describe it, I
suspect I'm missing something.
---
Bob Bridges, robhbrid...@gmail.com, cell 336 382-7313
/* Taxation ~with~ representation isn't all that great, either. */
-----Original Message-----
From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU> On Behalf Of
Rony G. Flatscher
Sent: Wednesday, April 17, 2024 14:24
ooRexx adds the message expression to Rexx to simplify interactions with any
kind of values. E.g.
instead of coding
say reverse("abc") /* yields a string "cba" */
you can optionally code:
say "abc"~reverse /* yields a string "cba" */
The message expression consists of a receiver value (synonyms: object,
instance) on the left-hand side of the tilde (~), which is the message
operator, followed by the name of a message on the right hand side. If the
message has arguments you would supply them in parentheses.
The receiver is then responsible to search for a method (function) by the name
of the received message, invokes it and returns the result, if any.
This is a quite simple concept.
....You may want to take a look at the article
<https://research.wu.ac.at/files/41301564/ISECON23_Flatscher_Proposing_ooRexx_article.pdf>
which introduces Rexx and ooRexx to engineering educators. Reading that
article, any interested REXX programmer from this mailing list should be able
to learn ooRexx in about half an hour!
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