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Jennifer Murphy

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Aug 11, 2012, 3:32:00 AM8/11/12
to
I just completed the installation of ooRexx on my Win XP system. A
couple of questions:

1. I thought I checked the option to associate .rex with ooRexx, but it
didn't happen. That extension had been associated with my editor,
UltraEdit. After the installation, it still was. And UltraEdit was also
added to the right-click menu. I make the association manually and it's
now working.

2. I wrote a little "Hello World" exec to test ooRexx. I saw something
flash on the screen. That's all. I then added a Pull statement and reran
it. Now the output window remained on screen. How come the output window
goes away automatically?

3. Item 7 of the Installation Options (p6) is a duplicate of item 6.

4. Item 2.5 says that there may be a problem with the Path if I have
another Rexx interpreter installed. I do have Quercus Rexx installed.
They seem to be coexisting. Should I be worried? I have to have the
Quercus operational until I have ooRexx checked out with my critical
execs.

LesK

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Aug 11, 2012, 4:26:08 AM8/11/12
to
On 8/11/2012 3:32 AM, Jennifer Murphy wrote:
> I just completed the installation of ooRexx on my Win XP system. A
> couple of questions:
>
> 1. I thought I checked the option to associate .rex with ooRexx, but it
> didn't happen. That extension had been associated with my editor,
> UltraEdit. After the installation, it still was. And UltraEdit was also
> added to the right-click menu. I make the association manually and it's
> now working.
>
My guess is that the installer didn't want to destroy the existing
association, just in case you made a mistrake.

> 2. I wrote a little "Hello World" exec to test ooRexx. I saw something
> flash on the screen. That's all. I then added a Pull statement and reran
> it. Now the output window remained on screen. How come the output window
> goes away automatically?
>
If you ran it by double-clicking on it, that's how Windows behaves. Open
a Command Prompt window and run it from there. There may be other tricks
that will help, but I let my editor (The Hessling Editor [THE]) do all
the work for me so I don't know those tricks.

> 3. Item 7 of the Installation Options (p6) is a duplicate of item 6.
>
> 4. Item 2.5 says that there may be a problem with the Path if I have
> another Rexx interpreter installed. I do have Quercus Rexx installed.
> They seem to be coexisting. Should I be worried? I have to have the
> Quercus operational until I have ooRexx checked out with my critical
> execs.
>


--

Les (Change Arabic to Roman to email me)

Sahananda

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Aug 11, 2012, 10:15:31 AM8/11/12
to
Hi Jennifer,

Just answering point 2 of yours.

ooRexx commes with three executables that you can use to run your scripts.

rexxHide.exe runs without a console window. If your application uses a gui then this means the black box is not seen.

rexx.exe runs with as console. However, as you found, if you run it from windows using the filetype association then the window closes on termination of the script.

rexxpaws.exe will run your script and then issue a windows pause command so you see a prompt press enter to continue... and the window will not close till you do.

You can associate different file extensions with the duifferent executables (indeed, I think the installer offers you these choices).

Alternately, you can open a windows command prompt to run your scripts from. I no longer have an XP system, but from memory it is something like, right click on the desktop, select new, select shortcut and in the target box put cmd, in the where to start box put the directory where your scripts are. When you first open the prompt, you can select properties from the system menu and customise the font size, colour etc. to suit you. You can then save these changes to the shortcut.

Now when you open your command prompt, you can run your script by typing
rexx myscript.rex
and after it hasd completed the cmd window remains visible and ready for another action.
type exit to close the command prompt.

I converted from Personal (Quercus) Rexx to ooRexx (or Object Rexx as it was then) about 12 years ago and have not regretted it. Sadly, my rxWindow based scripts no longer ran, but ooDialog is far more powerful.

Good luck,

Jon

Jeremy Nicoll - news posts

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Aug 11, 2012, 10:56:33 AM8/11/12
to
Jennifer Murphy <JenM...@jm.invalid> wrote:

>2. I wrote a little "Hello World" exec to test ooRexx. I saw something
>flash on the screen. That's all. I then added a Pull statement and reran
>it. Now the output window remained on screen. How come the output window
>goes away automatically?

The installer should have asked you about extensions you wanted mapped onto
each of rexx.exe, rexxhide.exe and rexxpaws.exe, or set defaults for these.

By giving your execs the appropriate extension you can have them run the way
you want.

I run nearly all my code using rexxhide.exe, even programs that don't use
GUI features. BUT, these programs all create log files so if something goes
awry I can find out what by looking at the logs.

Otherwise, I use .rex (ie invoking rexx.exe) pretty rarely, but do still
have code in most of those execs that does a final 'pull' only if I actually
wrote some output, because I don't like having execs that create no output
and then pause for something. The bottom line is you have to use the three
different executables in a way that suits you.

--
Jeremy C B Nicoll - my opinions are my own.

Email sent to my from-address will be deleted. Instead, please reply
to newsre...@wingsandbeaks.org.uk replacing "aaa" by "284".

Jennifer Murphy

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Aug 11, 2012, 11:03:37 AM8/11/12
to
On Sat, 11 Aug 2012 04:26:08 -0400, LesK <5mr...@tampabay.rr.com> wrote:

>On 8/11/2012 3:32 AM, Jennifer Murphy wrote:
>> I just completed the installation of ooRexx on my Win XP system. A
>> couple of questions:
>>
>> 1. I thought I checked the option to associate .rex with ooRexx, but it
>> didn't happen. That extension had been associated with my editor,
>> UltraEdit. After the installation, it still was. And UltraEdit was also
>> added to the right-click menu. I make the association manually and it's
>> now working.
>>
>My guess is that the installer didn't want to destroy the existing
>association, just in case you made a mistrake.

It asked me if I wanted to make the association. I said I did. (At least
I'm pretty sure I did.) Then it didn't do it.

>> 2. I wrote a little "Hello World" exec to test ooRexx. I saw something
>> flash on the screen. That's all. I then added a Pull statement and reran
>> it. Now the output window remained on screen. How come the output window
>> goes away automatically?
>>
>If you ran it by double-clicking on it, that's how Windows behaves. Open
>a Command Prompt window and run it from there.

I think you misunderstood my point on this one, too. The exec ran just
fine. ooRexx cleared the output window when it finished. It behaves
exactly the same way if run from the command prompt. I'm not sure why
anyone would run it that way, anyway. Seems like old DOS ways.

Jennifer Murphy

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Aug 11, 2012, 12:10:50 PM8/11/12
to
Aha. I wondered what those other two executables were for.

Is having three executables the best way to implement this? It seems a
little complicated.

>Alternately, you can open a windows command prompt to run your scripts from. I no longer have an XP system, but from memory it is something like, right click on the desktop, select new, select shortcut and in the target box put cmd, in the where to start box put the directory where your scripts are. When you first open the prompt, you can select properties from the system menu and customise the font size, colour etc. to suit you. You can then save these changes to the shortcut.
>
>Now when you open your command prompt, you can run your script by typing
>rexx myscript.rex
>and after it hasd completed the cmd window remains visible and ready for another action.
>type exit to close the command prompt.
>
>I converted from Personal (Quercus) Rexx to ooRexx (or Object Rexx as it was then) about 12 years ago and have not regretted it. Sadly, my rxWindow based scripts no longer ran, but ooDialog is far more powerful.

By rxWindow, do you mean execio?

Jennifer Murphy

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Aug 11, 2012, 12:26:37 PM8/11/12
to
On Sat, 11 Aug 2012 15:56:33 +0100, Jeremy Nicoll - news posts
<jn.nntp....@wingsandbeaks.org.uk> wrote:

>Jennifer Murphy <JenM...@jm.invalid> wrote:
>
>>2. I wrote a little "Hello World" exec to test ooRexx. I saw something
>>flash on the screen. That's all. I then added a Pull statement and reran
>>it. Now the output window remained on screen. How come the output window
>>goes away automatically?
>
>The installer should have asked you about extensions you wanted mapped onto
>each of rexx.exe, rexxhide.exe and rexxpaws.exe, or set defaults for these.

It probably did and I just didn't understand it. I believe I took all
the defaults. Does it set up default associations for hide and paws? Do
you know what those extensions are?

>By giving your execs the appropriate extension you can have them run the way
> you want.

What are the standard extensions? .rex, .rexh, and .rexp?

>I run nearly all my code using rexxhide.exe, even programs that don't use
>GUI features. BUT, these programs all create log files so if something goes
>awry I can find out what by looking at the logs.

Where the heck is rexxhide.exe?

It's not in [\Programs\Open Object Rexx]. And I can't find rexxhide.exe
or rexxpaws.exe, either?

Sahananda

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Aug 11, 2012, 12:53:06 PM8/11/12
to
> >ooRexx commes with three executables that you can use to run your scripts.
>
> >rexxHide.exe runs without a console window. If your application uses a gui then this means the black box is not seen.
>
> >rexx.exe runs with as console. However, as you found, if you run it from windows using the filetype association then the window closes on termination of the script.
>
> >rexxpaws.exe will run your script and then issue a windows pause command so you see a prompt press enter to continue... and the window will not close till you do.
>
> >You can associate different file extensions with the duifferent executables (indeed, I think the installer offers you these choices).
>
> Aha. I wondered what those other two executables were for.
>
> Is having three executables the best way to implement this? It seems a
> little complicated.
>
I seem to remember thinking that when I first met them, but it seems fine to me now. Usually where I have code that my users or I run regularly, I set up a windows shortcut specifying the appropriate executable. Usually my users get to run using rexxhide. Then when I want to lift the bonnet, I can run the same code using rexx.exe and I see the stdout output on the console. Works for me, but I accept it may take a bit of getting used to.

--- snip ---

>
> >I converted from Personal (Quercus) Rexx to ooRexx (or Object Rexx as it was then) about 12 years ago and have not regretted it. Sadly, my rxWindow based scripts no longer ran, but ooDialog is far more powerful.
>
>
>
> By rxWindow, do you mean execio?

No, although I had used execio on vm/cms, between doing that and using Quercus Rexx I had met the stream functions and was comfortable with them.

rxWindow was a package that came with Quercus personal rexx 3.0 that created DOS input and output panels. I rather liked it at the time.

If your code relies on the execio emulator that comes with Personal Rexx then you have two choices that I can think of. You can check out the hostEmu extension (in the rexxextensions manual) which provides a limited execio emulation, or you can convert your calls to the stream functions (or better yet stream class and methods).

I seem to remember Personal Rexx also came with a listfile emulator and I don't believe that you will find an equivalent of that in ooRexx.

hth
Jon

Jennifer Murphy

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Aug 11, 2012, 1:44:23 PM8/11/12
to
On Sat, 11 Aug 2012 09:53:06 -0700 (PDT), Sahananda
<saha...@gmail.com> wrote:

>> >ooRexx commes with three executables that you can use to run your scripts.
>>
>> >rexxHide.exe runs without a console window. If your application uses a gui then this means the black box is not seen.
>>
>> >rexx.exe runs with as console. However, as you found, if you run it from windows using the filetype association then the window closes on termination of the script.
>>
>> >rexxpaws.exe will run your script and then issue a windows pause command so you see a prompt press enter to continue... and the window will not close till you do.
>>
>> >You can associate different file extensions with the duifferent executables (indeed, I think the installer offers you these choices).
>>
>> Aha. I wondered what those other two executables were for.
>>
>> Is having three executables the best way to implement this? It seems a
>> little complicated.
>>
>I seem to remember thinking that when I first met them, but it seems fine to me now. Usually where I have code that my users or I run regularly, I set up a windows shortcut specifying the appropriate executable. Usually my users get to run using rexxhide. Then when I want to lift the bonnet, I can run the same code using rexx.exe and I see the stdout output on the console. Works for me, but I accept it may take a bit of getting used to.

Now that I understand the file extension mechanism, it makes more sense.

>> >I converted from Personal (Quercus) Rexx to ooRexx (or Object Rexx as it was then) about 12 years ago and have not regretted it. Sadly, my rxWindow based scripts no longer ran, but ooDialog is far more powerful.
>>
>>
>>
>> By rxWindow, do you mean execio?
>
>No, although I had used execio on vm/cms, between doing that and using Quercus Rexx I had met the stream functions and was comfortable with them.
>
>rxWindow was a package that came with Quercus personal rexx 3.0 that created DOS input and output panels. I rather liked it at the time.
>
>If your code relies on the execio emulator that comes with Personal Rexx then you have two choices that I can think of. You can check out the hostEmu extension (in the rexxextensions manual) which provides a limited execio emulation, or you can convert your calls to the stream functions (or better yet stream class and methods).
>
>I seem to remember Personal Rexx also came with a listfile emulator and I don't believe that you will find an equivalent of that in ooRexx.

I don't think I am using any of that, so the coversion may be fairly
straightforward. If not, I'll probably be back. ;-)

Thanks for the helpful insight.

Gil Barmwater

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Aug 11, 2012, 2:13:10 PM8/11/12
to
Jennifer Murphy wrote:
> On Sat, 11 Aug 2012 15:56:33 +0100, Jeremy Nicoll - news posts
> <jn.nntp....@wingsandbeaks.org.uk> wrote:
>
>
>>Jennifer Murphy <JenM...@jm.invalid> wrote:
>>
>>
>>>2. I wrote a little "Hello World" exec to test ooRexx. I saw something
>>>flash on the screen. That's all. I then added a Pull statement and reran
>>>it. Now the output window remained on screen. How come the output window
>>>goes away automatically?
>>
>>The installer should have asked you about extensions you wanted mapped onto
>>each of rexx.exe, rexxhide.exe and rexxpaws.exe, or set defaults for these.
>
>
> It probably did and I just didn't understand it. I believe I took all
> the defaults. Does it set up default associations for hide and paws? Do
> you know what those extensions are?
>
>
>>By giving your execs the appropriate extension you can have them run the way
>>you want.
>
>
> What are the standard extensions? .rex, .rexh, and .rexp?
>
>
>>I run nearly all my code using rexxhide.exe, even programs that don't use
>>GUI features. BUT, these programs all create log files so if something goes
>>awry I can find out what by looking at the logs.
>
>
> Where the heck is rexxhide.exe?
>
> It's not in [\Programs\Open Object Rexx]. And I can't find rexxhide.exe
> or rexxpaws.exe, either?
>

If you took the defaults for where to install, all the rexx*.exe's are
in \Program Files\ooRexx\.

Gerard_Schildberger

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Aug 11, 2012, 3:40:59 PM8/11/12
to
Yes, Personal REXX has the:

LISTFILE
EXECIO
GLOBALV
PRESS
ENABLE
DISABLE
CONWAIT
DESBUF
MAKEBUF
DROPBUF
SENTRIES

commands. I liked LISTFILE very much as it showed the seconds in the timestamp. LISTFILE and EXECIO allowed you to put the results in a stemmed array (just like on a real system), and it set the return code (RC) which PC/REXX recognized. It also got the return code back from the other DOS commands like DIR and BATch commands. Sadly, it no longer works on Windows Vista, 7, or higher. ___________________________________ Gerard Schildberger


Jeremy Nicoll - news posts

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Aug 11, 2012, 4:36:11 PM8/11/12
to
Jennifer Murphy <JenM...@jm.invalid> wrote:

>What are the standard extensions? .rex, .rexh, and .rexp?

Fraid not, though those are the values I override the defaults to. The
defaults are .rex .rexg and .rexp

I think .rexg was picked by someone who thought rexxhide would only be used
by people who'd written GUI programs...

Jennifer Murphy

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Aug 11, 2012, 10:51:32 PM8/11/12
to
Yep, that's where they are. For some reason, when I do a search for
rexx*.exe, it doesn't find them.

Jennifer Murphy

unread,
Aug 11, 2012, 10:53:09 PM8/11/12
to
On Sat, 11 Aug 2012 21:36:11 +0100, Jeremy Nicoll - news posts
<jn.nntp....@wingsandbeaks.org.uk> wrote:

>Jennifer Murphy <JenM...@jm.invalid> wrote:
>
>>What are the standard extensions? .rex, .rexh, and .rexp?
>
>Fraid not, though those are the values I override the defaults to. The
>defaults are .rex .rexg and .rexp
>
>I think .rexg was picked by someone who thought rexxhide would only be used
>by people who'd written GUI programs...

Aha. I would have chosen .rexh or called the exedcutable something
starting with "g". ;-) I probably won't override it just to stay
compatible with the rest of the world.

LesK

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Aug 12, 2012, 3:25:14 AM8/12/12
to
On 8/11/2012 3:40 PM, Gerard_Schildberger wrote:
> On Saturday, August 11, 2012 11:53:06 AM UTC-5, Sahananda wrote:
>>>> ooRexx commes with three executables that you can use to run your scripts.
>>
(clip)

>>
>> Jon
>
> Yes, Personal REXX has the:
>
> LISTFILE
> EXECIO
> GLOBALV
> PRESS
> ENABLE
> DISABLE
> CONWAIT
> DESBUF
> MAKEBUF
> DROPBUF
> SENTRIES
>
> commands. I liked LISTFILE very much as it showed the seconds in the timestamp.

LISTFILE and EXECIO allowed you to put the results in a stemmed array
(just like on a real

system), and it set the return code (RC) which PC/REXX recognized. It
also got the return

code back from the other DOS commands like DIR and BATch commands.
Sadly, it no longer works

on Windows Vista, 7, or higher. ___________________________________
Gerard Schildberger
>
>
ooRexx has SysFileTree() in Rexx Utilities (RexxUtil) which is similar
to LISTFILE. I do all my work using The Hessling Editor (an Xedit
look-a-like), so it's a SMOP to capture the output of SysFileTree in a
stemmed variable and add it to a file in the ring.

It's great using an editor that uses Rexx as its macro language!

Swifty

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Aug 15, 2012, 6:19:36 AM8/15/12
to
On Sat, 11 Aug 2012 00:32:00 -0700, Jennifer Murphy
<JenM...@jm.invalid> wrote:

>I make the association manually and it's
>now working.

In my experience, getting the associations right is one of the hard
parts, even when you know how to do it:

ftype RexxScript="C:\Program Files\oorexx\rexx.exe" "%1" %*
assoc .rex=RexxScript

I've issued those commands dozens of times on some systems, without it
working properly. I tinker around, and eventually it starts working,
but I don't ever remember the touchstone.



--
Steve Swift
http://www.swiftys.org.uk/swifty.html
http://www.ringers.org.uk

Mark Miesfeld

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Aug 18, 2012, 2:11:47 AM8/18/12
to
On Aug 11, 12:32 am, Jennifer Murphy <JenMur...@jm.invalid> wrote:
> I just completed the installation of ooRexx on my Win XP system. A
> couple of questions:

> 3. Item 7 of the Installation Options (p6) is a duplicate of item 6.

I don't understand this comment. page 6 of what?

> 4. Item 2.5 says that there may be a problem with the Path if I have

Same with this, where is 'Item 2.5' ?

--
Mark Miesfeld

Jennifer Murphy

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Aug 18, 2012, 3:59:18 AM8/18/12
to
These are both in the readme.pdf in \Program Files\ooRexx.

Sorry. I knew what I meant! ;-)

Mark Miesfeld

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Aug 20, 2012, 12:59:56 PM8/20/12
to
On Aug 18, 12:59 am, Jennifer Murphy <JenMur...@jm.invalid> wrote:
> On Fri, 17 Aug 2012 23:11:47 -0700 (PDT), Mark Miesfeld
>
> >I don't understand this comment.  page 6 of what?
> ...
> These are both in the readme.pdf in \Program Files\ooRexx.
>
> Sorry. I knew what I meant! ;-)

Thanks.

We always encourage people to open up bugs when they find them. We
have a separate tracker for documentation errors. You can report
errors of the type you listed at:

https://sourceforge.net/p/oorexx/documentation/

Creating a tracker item requires that you log in to SourceForge.
Registering at SourceForge is easy to do and there is no down side to
it that I've ever seen. If you are at all interested in ooRexx, it is
well worth it to register.

--
Mark Miesfeld

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