Will@cup.portal.com (Will E Estes) (10/20/89)
I'd like to hear about applications that people have for AREXX that involve multiple applications being controlled concurrently. Most of the AREXX users I have talked to seem to use the language as a powerful macro-language for one application. The potential for use as a way to integrate applications is obvious, but how many people are actually doing this and what are the applications for which it is being done? Thanks, Will
jgary@ms.uky.edu (James E. Gary) (10/21/89)
In article <23183@cup.portal.com> Will@cup.portal.com (Will E Estes) writes: >I'd like to hear about applications that people have for AREXX that involve >multiple applications being controlled concurrently. Most of the AREXX users I too feel that AREXX is being underutilized in this area. I wrote a set of simple macros that integrate Atalk3 and Microfiche filer plus to keep track of and download files from BIX. There are somewhere around 800 files on BIX and although you can search by date and keyword on-line, bix is pretty slow. My programs allow you to take a full listing of the files with dates, authors, keywords, descriptions, size, etc. (all this is available in one zoo from BIX -- updated every Sunday), and put this info into a database with MFF+. You can then use the database features to select files you are interested in, then automatically have atalk download those files for you. I whipped this up in a single afternoon and have meant to go back and clean it up a little. I would also like to add automatic updates ( a macro to call BIX and bring the database up to date). If I do this, I will probably do it from NAG plus so it can be scheduled to occur late at night. It would be interesting to integrate three packages this way, don't you think? -- +-----------------------------------------------------------+ | James Gary jgary@ms.uky.edu | Hoping someday to have | | University of Kentucky | laurels to rest on. | +-----------------------------------------------------------+
mwm@mica.berkeley.edu (Mike (I'll think of something yet) Meyer) (10/23/89)
I've got a couple of such applications. The one that's probably closest to what you want runs from mff+, and uses mg to do template processing on a user-selected file. This was written specifically so I could do form letter generation, but can but used for many other, similar things. The rest are all based on treewalk. Treewalk can run one (or more) macros on all files in a tree, and answers commands to hand back parts of the FileInfoBlock (or expressions based on same) for the file currently being considered. A typicall such macro is "mginsert", which finds a running mg (starting one if needed), and inserts the name of each file scaneed into the buffer. Other uses (such as getting vlt to upload files that have changed since the last upload) should be simple; I just need to write the scripts. This last application also illustrates how most treewalk scripts work: there's a WSHELL (or just a .rexx) script that sets some clip variables, and then starts a treewalk (.ftw) script that uses those clip variables to control what it does - for example, making vlt issue "cd" commands to the remote host, so that it's in right directory to do an upload. <mike -- Take a magic carpet to the olden days Mike Meyer To a mythical land where everybody lays mwm@berkeley.edu Around in the clouds in a happy daze ucbvax!mwm In Kizmiaz ... Kizmiaz mwm@ucbjade.BITNET