arexx problem w/Backtalk
9 messages in this thread
Steve, First of all, I am new at writing anything in Arexx but I wanted to
use Backtalk to logon to the mainframe at work. And I wanted to write an
Arexx program to logon and download some information.
I am launching the Arexx program from CLI, external to Backtalk. I've been
using the sample scripts that came with Backtalk (version 1.4) to guide me.
Based on the scripts in included the lines to check for the
rexxsupport.library.
if ~show('1', "rexxsupport.library") then
addlib('rexxsupport..library,0,-30,0)
while using trace to check my program I get an error when I use the above:
if ~show('1', "rexxsupport.library") then +++ Error 18 in line, Invalid
argument to function.
Looking up show in the Arexx manual show() function is written as
SHOW(option, [name],[pad]) and that option keyword are clip, files,
libraries and ports. So I re-wrote the above as:
test = show(Libraries, "rexxsupport.library") if test ~= 1 then
addlib('rexxsupport.library',0,-30,0)
This worked fine. Why doesn't the first way work, am I doing something
wrong?
George Brown, 75016,3441
George,
Offhand I don't know why the first way didn't work for you — it works for
me. What version of ARexx do you have?
Steve,
I have version 1.15 of ARexx.
George
George,
I missed it in your example, but I think BobR found the problem — it's a
lowercase l rather than the number 1 that you want to use.
Steve,
Yes, the problem was my confusing a lower case l with the number one.
When I was taught typing in high school, in the days before personal
computers, the l (lower case L) and one (1) could be interchanged. In
fact, some typewriters required you to use the l (L) as the one all the
time. So, I got in the very bad habit of reading a lower case l as one.
George
George,
I think I see the problem you're having, unless it was a typo when you
entered the message here. You have the ARexx command as
"show('1',"rexxsupport.library")", which is using the numeral one ('1') as
the first argument. It should be the letter el ('l') instead. Could that
be your problem?
Hope this helps….
…BobR
Bob,
Your right I was typing 1 (one) not l , they both look so much alike.
I figured it was something simple.
Thanks
George
George, your first example:
if ~show('1',"rexxsupport.library") then
addlib('rexxsupport..library,0,-30,0)
has a couple typos. If written like:
if ~show('L',"rexxsupport.library") then
addlib('rexxsupport.library',0,-30,0)
works. I assume that most were just typos, but the '1' in the first line
is NOT an '1', but must be a 'L' (or 'Libraries'). When I used a '1' I
received the exact error msg you got, so I'd guess that may be the problem.
(the old lowercase 'l' and '1' mixup bites again!)
–jp–seattle–
John,
Your right. I was typing 1 (one) instead of l (L).
Thanks,
George