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Re: TSO-REXX Digest - 9 Feb 2021 to 14 Feb 2021 (#2021-21)

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Alan Winson

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Feb 15, 2021, 1:19:17 AM2/15/21
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Just a nit-picky point: Far be it from me to say anything critical of Phil
Smith. In fact, I like his comment about the underscore:

:>As others have suggested, the best way to be able to refer to a literal
:>tail is to start tails with a number. I've usually used a pure convention
:>of a leading underscore:

:>a._bbb

I think it looks better than using a digit. Back when every scrap of CPU
time was precious, it was (almost) worth noting that underscore is a valid
initial or sole character in a variable name, so when it is used as the
first character in a node of a tail, it must be looked up, wasting a tiny
amount of time to discover that it is undefined and should therefore be
used as-is but in upper case. Digits, however ugly they may look as the
first character in a node of a tail, can not begin a variable name so no
time is wasted looking them up.
Alan Winson


On Sun, Feb 14, 2021 at 9:00 PM TSO-REXX automatic digest system <
LIST...@vm.marist.edu> wrote:

> There is 1 message totaling 66 lines in this issue.
>
> Topics of the day:
>
> 1. VALUE function without substitution?
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Date: Sun, 14 Feb 2021 20:15:04 +0200
> From: Binyamin Dissen <bdi...@DISSENSOFTWARE.COM>
> Subject: Re: VALUE function without substitution?
>
> Thank you for the idea.
>
> I also abstracted the references.
>
> On Thu, 4 Feb 2021 09:24:44 -0000 Neil Hancock <neil.h...@MACRO4.COM>
> wrote:
>
> :>Its been years since I've Rexxed, but prefixing suffixes with zero was a
> :>useful pattern, as these are guaranteed to be literal.
>
> :> aaa.0bbb = "what I want"
> :> 0bbb = "not allowed"
> :> ccc = "0bbb"
> :> say aaa.0bbb /*=> "what I want" */
> :> say aaa.ccc /*=> "what I want" */
>
> :>-----Original Message-----
> :>From: TSO REXX Discussion List [mailto:TSO-...@VM.MARIST.EDU] On Behalf
> :>Of Phil Smith III
> :>Sent: 03 February 2021 22:03
> :>To: TSO-...@VM.MARIST.EDU
> :>Subject: Re: VALUE function without substitution?
>
> :>OK, I finally grok. You cannot do what you want with classic Rexx short
> of
> :>DROPping BBB before the reference.
>
> :>As others have suggested, the best way to be able to refer to a literal
> :>tail is to start tails with a number. I've usually used a pure convention
> :>of a leading underscore:
>
> :>a._bbb
>
> :>Of course that only works provided you're rigorous enough to never set a
> :>variable beginning with an underscore. A number is 100% safe, if uglier.
>
> :>In either case, it seems-without knowing your use case, obviously-that
> :>either of those conventions should work for a known literal tail. Since
> :>you know what the tail is going to be, seems like you can, well, predict
> :>what it's going to be.
>
> --
> Binyamin Dissen <bdi...@dissensoftware.com>
> http://www.dissensoftware.com
>
> Director, Dissen Software, Bar & Grill - Israel
>
>
> Should you use the mailblocks package and expect a response from me,
> you should preauthorize the dissensoftware.com domain.
>
> I very rarely bother responding to challenge/response systems,
> especially those from irresponsible companies.
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> For TSO-REXX subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions,
> send email to LIST...@VM.MARIST.EDU with the message: INFO TSO-REXX
>
> ------------------------------
>
> End of TSO-REXX Digest - 9 Feb 2021 to 14 Feb 2021 (#2021-21)
> *************************************************************
>

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