The REXX Language: A Practical Approach to Programing

This book does a great job of explaining the language in a manner that all can understand, and works as a fantastic reference guide.

This is a great reference book for the rexx programming language.However based on the current price I'm glad I was able to find my old copy from back in the 90's which has the original cover.An interersting aspect of this book is the history of how the rexx language was created. It was originally distributed internally within IBM and many changes were made based on feedback from the original users.This is a good example of how someone managed a tremendous amount of information. The reference documentation was written before the language was actually implemented. The author felt that writing the reference documentation after the language was implemented would result in inaccurate documentation because the writer would know the implementation too well to write an objective description.He says the following about the thousands of e-mails he received from the original users:"All of this mail was reviewed some time after the initial correspondence in an effort to perceive trends and generalities that might not have been apparent on a day-to-day basis."I guess this is similar to how things evolve in the unix world.Something gets introduced on some newsgroup and then it evolves.Anyway the end result is a relatively easy-to-understand programming language which fills a certain type of niche functionality very well. Rexx is sort of like a scripting or command language but it has many of the same features as a full blown programming language plus some of its own unique features.It's definitely a better alternative than batch files for working with files and issuing commands to the operating system.

I enjoyed the book. It is very well written as a reference for the language. And it is interesting to read the motivation behind different features. I first used Rexx about 18 years ago, and I still think it's an excellent scripting language. I use the Korn shell every day, but I find it much easier to write scripts in Rexx. However, I don't think this is a good deal. [The cost] is WAY too much to spend for a xeroxed paperback copy. [Also,] it's NOT in a textbook binding...

I used this book as my bible for the first 3-4 months I worked in REXX. It contains all of the introductory lessons and information you need to get some REXX under your belt. Perfect for a first-time REXX programmer.

Easy to understand, this book is an excellent tutorial for this simple but powerful language. And you can't argue with his credentials. Not overly clever or dense, very accessible, but (as far as I can tell so far) authoritative. This book was recommended by several manufacturers of MVS software as the definitive "beginner's" book, and "Modern Programming w/ Rexx" as a follow up.