With REXX available for free to OS/2 users one would wonder why look at another interpreted programming language for use on OS/2.  Now that you are waiting for me to convince you to abandon REXX I'm not going to do it.  I happen to like REXX and I like Python.  They both do about the same job.  There are some things REXX can do that Python can't and some things Python can do that REXX can't.

In this monograph REXX means classic REXX.  I have no experience whatsoever with Object REXX.  Which means I will not be dwelling on the fact that Python is object oriented.  That part of the comparison will be for an other day.  Also, I will not delve into the history of either language.  I'm simply going to compare several abilities of each language.

I got involved with Python while teaching computer programming at Heritage Christian High School.  I had an OS/2 lab there but I knew most students would be out in the windoze world and probably would not have access to REXX.  Python was a good substitute.  It is as easy to learn as REXX, very powerful, and is freely available to Unix, Linux, and Windows users.  The version of Python I have installed is Python/2 version 1.5.2 for OS/2 from: http://warped.cswnet.com/~jrush/python_os2/index.html

The other important url is: www.python.org

Let's see how the two languages compare.
 

	REXX	Python
Programming Environment	Text editor Programs called from the command line REXXTry for a real time environment	Text editor Programs called from the command line Running Python.exe results in an environment similar to REXXTry
Assignment	VarName = 27 VarName = "aString" Set x equal to y and increment y: x = y y = y + 1	VarName = 27 VarName = "aString" Set x equal to y and increment y: x , y = y,  y + 1
Style	Indenting unimportant Blocking: do ... end	Indenting is important Blocking: by indents  Block Example
Control	if ... then ... else select ... when	if ... elif ... else  Control Example
Loops	do <number> do while ... end do until ... end	while <condition> : for <condition> :  Loop Example
String Functions	translate("string") returns STRING translate(string,tableIN,tableOUT) translate looks for each symbol in string in tableIN and replaces it with the symbol in tableOUT that is in the corresponding position of the string symbol in tableIN. substr(string,start,number) substr() is a symbol by symbol slicer.  It returns number of symbols starting at the symbol at start. word(string, number) word() returns the number of symbol groups (whole words) delimited by a space.	uppercase(string) lowercase(string) swapcase(String) returns: sTRING Python's substring operations Python's symbol slicer {string[s,e]} starts at position s+1 of string and ends at position e-1.  Slice examples
Data Structures	Lists x = "1 2 4 9 3 6 4" operations on lists word(x,#) returns the word at position # but does not remove it pos(string, x) returns the starting position of string in x parse var x ele1 ele2 . reverse(x)	Lists x = [1,2,4,9,3,6,4] operations on lists: sort reverse - reverses the order remove - an element pop - removes last element append - to the list index - returns the position at which an element is found extend - adds another list to this list insert - add an element at a specific place count - counts the number of times an object occurs in the list  List examples

Note: some new emx-compiled Python executables and add-on libraries have recently been uploaded to Hobbes by Andrew MacIntyre. For now you'll find them on Hobbes in the incoming section.

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