Malcolm Kayser Computer Training Limited

Courses in Programming (including Cobol), UNIX, Linux, IBM Mainframe,
Design Methods and Web design

www.malkayser.plus.com

Telephone: +44 (0)20 8954 1981
E-mail: malcolm@malkayser.plus.com

USING REXX IN A WINDOWS ENVIRONMENT

This course provides instruction on the use of the Restructured EXtended eXecutor (REXX) language.

Overall Objective

Attendees are PC users who wish to create and use programs written in REXX. A large number of terminal exercises are used to reinforce and emphasise the lecture material. The exercises are organised to allow delegates to progress at their own pace. The course assumes no previous knowledge of REXX.

Audience

The course is designed to run on a PC running the Windows operating system, but can be applied to REXX running on Linux as well. This course is suitable for:

Users
Analysts
System administrators
Technical support personnel

who have a need to write, understand or maintain REXX programs.

If REXX is to be used on the IBM mainframe using z/OS, OS/390 and TSO environments then attendance of the Using REXX under TSO course will be more appropriate.

Prerequisites

Delegates should meet these minimum requirements:

Some previous programming experience or programming training (in any language) would be useful
For delegates in the PC (or Linux) environment, familiarity with PC (or Linux) concepts is required
The ability to create and modify files using Windows Notepad or Linux vim editor is necessary

Duration

The course is run over 3 to 4 days and consists of classroom lectures and hands-on exercises.

Course objectives

On completion of this course, the delegate will be able to:

Code REXX instructions with proper syntax
Construct program logic using REXX control flow instructions
Invoke and pass parameters to REXX programs
Code REXX instructions to accomplish file and terminal I/O
Describe the purpose and use of the data stack
Write REXX programs that use the data stack
Use REXX built-in functions to manipulate data
Create user defined functions and subroutines
Code REXX instructions that parse complex data strings
Debug REXX programs using the REXX TRACE facility
Identify the use of REXX command Environment

Course contents

Historical background to the REXX language
Language components: Clauses, Tokens, Labels, Assignments, Instructions, Commands
Symbols
Operators: Concatenation, Arithmetic, Comparison, Logical
REXX built-in Functions
Parsing strings
Decision and Loop instructions
Data Stack management
Subroutines and Functions
The REXX TRACE facility
External functions
REXX commands
File handling commands

page updated: 27/12/09

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