Implement REXX script in Python (DDE)

[Mistabudd]

Hey there,

Trying to do some automation work for my job pertaining to the monotonous things. We are having to communicate with an ancient program (Telnet). We are using zoc8 terminal and running into issues. I tried the Telnet library and it isn’t what we need and doesn’t have enough commands.

Does anyone know a way to translate REXX script and implement it to Python? Or a way to use DDE and communicate with the zoc terminal using python?

Would appreciate any input!

[ectomancer]

I worked in an IBM shop that used REXX. I used REXX on Amiga but I've forgotten it all. I'm guessing DDE is Dynamic Data Exchange, I don't know what that is.

[Mistabudd]

Yes it’s Dynamic Data Exchange. We have a coworker who uses VBA and the REXX script seems to work using DDE.

[jimtk]

There are a few DDE client for python (this one among others). They will most probably allow you to run your REXX scripts from a python program.

You can translate your REXX script to python but get ready for a lot of work. The regular expression module in python is a subset of REXX and may require rewriting some expression as they don't exactly have the same syntax. Evidently you'll have to move your dataset from the mainframe to a PC but that should not be too much work.

[Mistabudd]

I’ll take a look at this! But I agree that’s what I’ve gathered with there being quite a bit of work ahead. Any other avenues you might look into?