IBM PC DOS 7 REXX Interpreter

Finally there's a REXX Interpreter shipped with DOS - at least for IBM PC DOS (Anyone who uses DOS from M*cr*s*ft anymore?)

I haven't tested it very well but it seems to be compatible with the OS/2 REXX Interpreter. REXXTRY.CMD, for example, works well under the IBM PC DOS 7 REXX Interpreter.

The IBM PC DOS 7 REXX Interpreter is implemented as a plain EXE file so you can use it also under other DOS versions or in the DOS box of OS/2.
To do this copy the files

REXX.EXE

This is the REXX interpreter
REXXDUMP.EXE
This is a program to dump all defined variables
all files with the extension .RX
These are the external functions for REXX
and
DOSREXX.INF
This is the online help for DOS REXX.

to a directory in your path. That's all.

One advantage of the DOS REXX interpreter compared with the OS/2 version is the tool named REXXDUMP.EXE. REXXDUMP can be used to write the names and contents of all defined variables to STDOUT. This is very useful to check if something went wrong in a REXX program. There are some external functions included in IBM PC DOS 7 to replace the REXXUTIL package from OS/2 REXX:

┌────────────────────┬────────────────────────────────────────┐
│Utility             │Action                                  │
├────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────┤
│RXCHDIR             │Changes to the specified directory.     │
├────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────┤
│RXCHDRV             │Changes to the specified drive.         │
├────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────┤
│RXCLS               │Clears the screen or, optionally, a     │
│                    │rectangular region of the screen, using │
│                    │the specified attribute.                │
├────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────┤
│RXCREATE            │Creates the specified file.             │
├────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────┤
│RXCRSTAT            │Sets the cursor state.                  │
├────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────┤
│RXDELETE            │Deletes a specified file.               │
├────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────┤
│RXDINFO             │Returns information about the specified │
│                    │drive.                                  │
├────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────┤
│RXDOSVER            │Returns the PC DOS version.             │
├────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────┤
│RXFINFO             │Returns information about a specified   │
│                    │file.                                   │
├────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────┤
│RXGETDIR            │Returns the current directory on the    │
│                    │specified or current drive.             │
├────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────┤
│RXGETDRV            │Returns the current drive.              │
├────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────┤
│RXGETKEY            │Returns (optionally without ECHO) the   │
│                    │next key from the keyboard buffer.      │
├────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────┤
│RXGETMEM            │Returns the amount of free memory       │
│                    │available.                              │
├────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────┤
│RXGETPOS            │Returns the cursor position.            │
├────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────┤
│RXISDIR             │Returns a value indicating whether the  │
│                    │filename is a file or a directory.      │
├────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────┤
│RXMKDIR             │Creates a subdirectory.                 │
├────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────┤
│RXNETDRV            │Returns a value indicating whether a    │
│                    │drive is local or remote.               │
├────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────┤
│RXQSYS              │Returns the specified system            │
│                    │information.                            │
├────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────┤
│RXRMDIR             │Removes a file directory.               │
├────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────┤
│RXSCRSIZ            │Returns the screen size.                │
├────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────┤
│RXSETPOS            │Sets the cursor position.               │
├────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────┤
│RXSLEEP             │Pauses a REXX program for a specified   │
│                    │time interval.                          │
├────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────┤
│RXWRSCR             │Writes the specified string to the      │
│                    │screen starting at the current cursor   │
│                    │position.                               │
└────────────────────┴────────────────────────────────────────┘

By the way: The online help for PC DOS 7 is in INF format. So you can use the OS/2 program VIEW.EXE to read it. Or from the other side: There's a DOS textmode INF file viewer shipped with IBM PC DOS 7 which can also be used to read the INF files written for OS/2.

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