z/OS REXX Programming Workshop

This course is designed to teach you the basic skills required to write programs using the REXX language in z/OS. The course covers the TSO extensions to REXX and interaction with other environments such as the MVS console, running REXX in batch jobs, and compiling REXX.

• Write programs using the Rexx language
• Use various data parsing techniques
• Use built-in Rexx functions
• Create user-defined internal and external functions and subroutines
• Issue host commands from within Rexx execs
• Code programs that read and write data sets
• Use instructions and commands that manipulate the data stack
• Use Rexx debugging tools
• Write error-handling routines

This is an intermediate course for people who need to write and maintain Rexx programs in the z/OS system environment.

You should be able to:

• Code basic Job Control Language statements
• Code in a programming language
• Create, alter, and delete data sets using TSO

These skills can be developed by taking:

• Fundamental System Skills of z/OS (ES10)
• A programming language course

Day 1

• (01:00) Unit 1 - Introduction
• (01:30) Unit 2 - Getting started with REXX (start)
• (01:00) Lab exercise 1
• (01:00) Unit 2 - Getting started with REXX (finish)
• (01:00) Lab exercise 2
• (01:30) Unit 3 - Programming in REXX (start)

Day 2

• (01:00) Lab exercise 3
• (01:30) Unit 3 - Programming in REXX (finish)
• (01:00) Lab exercise 4
• (01:00) Unit 4 - Functions and subroutines (start)
• (02:00) Lab exercise 5

Day 3

• (01:00) Unit 4 - Functions and subroutines (finish)
• (01:00) Lab exercise 6
• (01:30) Unit 5 - Debugging and error handling
• (01:00) Lab exercise 7
• (01:00) Unit 6 - Executing host commands
• (01:30) Lab exercise 8

Day 4

• (01:30) Unit 7 - Compound variables and the data stack
• (01:30) Lab exercise 9
• (01:30) Unit 8 - Reading and writing data sets in REXX
• (01:00) Lab exercise 10
• (01:30) Unit 9 - The parse instruction

Day 5

• (01:30) Lab exercise 11
• (01:30) Unit 10 - Using REXX: REXX compiler, REXX in batch, MVS console commands
• (01:00) Lab exercise 12