Enhancing XEDIT as a an APL editor

Abstract

While APL2 provides a built-in editor, under VM it also offers a convenient interface to XEDIT, the VM system editor. XEDIT is an incredibly powerful general-purpose editor, well worth mastering for its many uses outside the APL environment. But it is missing some facilities specifically tailored for APL function editing. This paper describes a solution to one specific deficiency: the lack of a "name" or "whole word" change command. The XEDIT macro presented here, CN (for "change name"), corrects the problem and also offers an introduction to REXX, IBM's SAA command language, in a context familiar to APL'ers.