#ARexx
You need applications that are designed with bringing a command
set out to be programmed from the outside to do it, though once
you get into rexx from an application you can let rexx run some
batch type things with programs that don't have REXX support
built in.
.
The best example now is using TxEd Plus along with AREXX and
a new version of AmigaTeX that has AREXX support. I've built
the TxEd Plus command language around using AREXX to make it
easy to write quickie macros (IE, write the macro in the middle
of some other stuff, cut to a scratch buffer, and invoke that buffer
with a keystroke or menu selection) ; the macro can do things
like "send the marked block of text to TeX, and process it,
and then send the result to the TeX previewer; if there are
any errors in TeX, come back to TxEd and jump to the line number
where the error occurs". This turns TeX, a non-interactive
but very powerful typesetting language, into an interactive
system that lets you experiment with different layouts almost
as quickly as the WYSIWYG page layout programs.
.
Another great potential application is telecomm programs, which
you would invoke the macro "Get me some text into the clipboard",
which will invoke your favorite editor (hope it's TxEd Plus C-:),
and get the text, and close TxEd down returning control to the
COMM program. Same thing could be done with the review modes,
rather than having the COMM program allow a limited scrolling
review buffer you can ship it out to an editor that is better
designed to handle that kind of things.
.
The real neat thing is that it is all instant once you have
set up a few macros, and you can cut out all the simple time
consuming things you would otherwise need to do to get text
from an editor outside a comm program. It takes a somewhat
different orientation for the programmer – you can focus on
creating the best of something smaller, rather than trying to
implement everything every time you put together a new application.
It's sort of an extension on using system functions, but the
functions are higher-level things that use AREXX to smooth out
the interface between modules and create a "seamless" combination
of programs that works better than old "integrated" programs.
…cheath