looking for interpreter / macro language facility

[Darren New]

In article <1991May22.153052.30224 at wpi.WPI.EDU> ajb at miles.WPI.EDU (Arthur J. Butler) writes:
>hi.  i am looking for advice and/or suggestions on an interpreter or
>macro language facility which i plan on adding to my application.  

REXX would be a good choice.  Check comp.lang.rexx to find out if
there is a REXX interpreter for the environments you are interested
in.  I think it's available on IBM mainframes, UNIX, most micros, etc.
It's an algol/basic/pascal-class language with lots more flexibility,
and any command that isn't understood by the interpreter gets
passed to whatever program started the macro.  Thus, you could 
write a REXX command called "downparagraph" which said

downparagraph:
   getline X
   while X ~= "" do
     downline
     getline X
     end

(It's been a while, so the syntax may be wrong.)  Anyway,
the getline and downline statements are not REXX statements,
so they get bounced back to the calling editor to handle.

Anyway, it's a good idea to check it out, especially since
it handles multiple concurrent appplications at once:

getfiles:
   getline X
   address command "ftp " || X
   getline X
   while X ~= "" do
      address "FTP-REXX-PORT" "get " || X
      getline X
      end
   address "FTP-REXX-PORT" "bye"

which would get the name of the machine from the current
line in the editor, start up FTP, and then get the files
named on the succeeding lines.   It's also a very easy language
to learn and works with lots of other products, which is
a plus compared to learning a new macro language for every
application.

	      -- Darren

-- 
--- Darren New --- Grad Student --- CIS --- Univ. of Delaware ---
----- Network Protocols, Graphics, Programming Languages, FDTs -----
+=+ Nails work better than screws, when both are driven with hammers +=+