IBM Mainframe Forum

hi,
i am new to Clist and Rexx,there are both command language, what is the main difference between them? and in the real word, when to choose using clist and when to choose using rexx, is more suitable?
thanks!

Now that both languages are included for no extra cost, in the real world there's really no logical reason to use CLIST instead of REXX.

You could go for CLIST if you have masochistic tendencies

I definitely prefer Rexx to Clist, but their is also an additional option, PIPE. PIPE is not as easy to read and use as Rexx (in my opinion, but I am byased, I have been using Rexx for years) and is much faster (unless you compile the Rexx).

CLIST was the original command language in TSO. Rexx, a little beauty of a language, appeared first in VM/CMS (which already had two other "old" command languages, EXEC and EXEC2).

No idea why, but REXX (Restructured Extended Executor) was a language which was interpreted by the VM System Product Interpreter. So, Rexx was the language, but not the official name of the interpreter. I could try some searches for more background information, but so could anyone else.

Rexx is available everywhere. CLIST, err.... no.

thanks

As Bilyboyo indicated, the original CLIST was an extremely limited capability in the original TSO for OS/360. It was improved to something close to its present form in OS/VS2 Release 1. Rexx was ported over from VM somewhat later, though I don't recall when it was done.

As other have said, there is some variant of Rexx in many other platforms, where CLIST is strictly a TSO language. It had a major place in the Amiga platform that many people remember fondly and the OS/2 platform. I believe there are implementations for Windoze, but since it must be added onto Windoze rather being integrated into the product, something Microsoft would probably loathe to do considering its OS/2 roots, I doubt it will ever get serious traction in the Windoze world. I believe there are Rexx implementations for UNIX/LINUX, but since it is not integrated, it is unlikely to achieve serious use in that environment. There are already pretty good scripting languages, like Perl, for UNIX/LINKUX; so it will be difficult for Rexx to push them asiude.

Also, the fine manual contains some good materials.

O.

I have not tried it recently, but it used to be that rexx was not able to issue the TSOLIB command, whereas CLIST could. The circumvention is to use the QUEUE instruction to queue the TSOLIB command to execute after the rexx program ends. TSOLIB is useful for environment setup during logon.

(my age is showing)
Also, there were some TSO commands like ACCOUNT and OPERATOR that worked better with CLIST. Maybe even the TSO TEST command was better with CLIST.

Though, if I understand it right:
RACF commands have superseded the ACCOUNT command.
And CONSOLE has superseded the OPERATOR command.
And I am pretty sure RDz is much better than TSO TEST.

I believe there are implementations for Windoze, but since it must be added onto Windoze rather being integrated into the product, something Microsoft would probably loathe to do considering its OS/2 roots, I doubt it will ever get serious traction in the Windoze world. I believe there are Rexx implementations for UNIX/LINUX, but since it is not integrated, it is unlikely to achieve serious use in that environment. There are already pretty good scripting languages, like Perl, for UNIX/LINKUX; so it will be difficult for Rexx to push them asiude

open object REXX is a multi platform implementation of REXX according to the ANSI standard
see http://www.rexxla.org/rexxlang/standards/

available both 32 and 64 bits executables for all the platforms ( and if not binary available very easy to build )
WINDOWS with a powerful dialog manager ( taken from IBM object Rexx )
mac osx
linux various distributions
( I have quite a few scripts running without any modification in all abovesaid environments )
and can downloaded here
https://sourceforge.net/projects/oorexx/