Writing Your Program

You can create Rexx programs using any editor that can write straight ASCII files without hidden format controls. The Windows Notepad is an editor that you can use.

Rexx is a free-format programming language. You can indent lines and insert blank lines for readability if you wish. But even free-format languages have some rules about how language elements are used. Rexx's rules center around its basic language element: the clause.

Usually, there is one clause on each line of the program, but you can put several and separate each clause with a semicolon (;):

say "Hello"; say "Goodbye"  /* Two clauses on one line */

To continue a clause on a second line, put a comma at the end of the line:

say,             /* Continuation */
"It isn't so"

If you need to continue a literal string, do it like this:

say,             /* Continuation of literal strings */
"This is a long string that we want to continue",
"on another line."

Rexx automatically adds a blank after continue. If you need to split a string, but do not want to have a blank inserted when Rexx puts the string back together, use the Rexx concatenation operator (||):

say "I do not want Rexx to in"||,   /* Continuation with concatenation */
"sert a blank!"