ScuzzBlog: Diaries June 2021
Entry 12th June 2021: Post 1: Amiga ARexx - What the f'xx is ARexx.
Amiga ARexx - What the f'xx is ARexx.
For all World of Warcraft aficionados this will make understanding
ARexx very easy. You are challenged with a difficult series of
attack moves that need individual icon activation... or clicking
from the mouse. The process is something you repeat. Fortunately
the game lets you create a macro by simply combining these actions
into one task icon. So instead of clicking several task icons you
just click one. That process, if it were on an Amiga, would be running
an ARexx script.
' Can I go now ? '
ARexx is a programming language that lets you write scripts that
define tasks for the Amiga. The scripts themselves are created in
a text editor and contain instructions that ARexx can understand.
These scripts allow the Amiga to carry out everyday tasks without
the need for software applications to manually operate these
functions. Consequently macros can be created to permit the
interaction between different applications when taking advantage
of the Amiga multitasking capabilities.
Arexx gives you the power to customise your operations making
software more responsive and carry out tasks automatically. The
benefit is that it is possible to expand on the software's
capabilities allowing it to carry out tasks that it could otherwise
not. What is remarkable is that unlike other programs the Arexx
is 'invisible'. It simply runs in the background waiting to be
called upon.
REXX is actually an IBM product developed by Mike Cowlishaw. His
main ambition was to create a language that was easy to understand.
Fortunately for the Amiga the language was designed to be system
independent and so operational on a number of differing platforms.
It was William Hawes that released ARexx in 1987. The Amigas
multitasking facilities made for an ideal environment for the macro
language of ARexx.
Advantages:
Arexx can interact with other programs running at the same time.
The scripts can use the vocabulary of the program being used.
Arexx itself is an interpreter and therefore executes its functions
by reading and 'interpreting' command lines one at a time. Making
sure that execution is carried out as the program is read. This is
in difference to a compiler which by nature translates the whole
program first.
To my understanding from what I have read it appears that ARexx
permits the use of macros written in ARexx to execute tasks that
otherwise would need to be programmed in each time. So if say you
wanted to call up a specific brush and apply a mask to that brush
of a specific density you could avoid the manual procedure by
simply calling upon the script.
Important:
RexxMast must be running all the time for the scripts to work.
Scripts are run by the RX program allowing Arexx macros to be run
within software.
rexxsyslib.library must be present in the 'libs' drawer.
The RX program is run as an AmigaDOS SHELL command. Scripts are
text files and executed by the 'rx' command, and so 'rx scuzz'
would run the Arexx script called 'scuzz'.
Arexx program files generally come with your Workbench installation
and reside in its own drawer called Arexx. Additional support files
are located in the 'libs' directory.
Please note that I rarely scan pages from books into this site.
Technically all written work is subject to copyright and so by
providing extracts it encourages you to source the originals. More
importantly all my books and magazines are valuable to me and I
try to avoid pressing the spines flat and damaging the publication.
Sadly on annoyingly hot sunny days that we get at this time of the
year I struggle to stop the bloody sun coming into the room. The
camera tends to over compensate and render many images darker. I
work them in Photoshop but that can have other implications. What
I need is wonderful, beautiful overcast dull days. Sadly the clouds
have not been kind to me today. Regular readers will appreciate
just how I dislike this time of year. In truth I hate the f'xxing summer.
How you doooin ?
Amiga ARexx - What the f'xx is ARexx.
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