Here is another question: Can the "REXX Tool" that you have created ((or a similarly created one) be used to extract embedded data in the context of
"Spread Sheet" scenarios.? Also, to what extent have historical considerations been given to the fact that "REXX became part of the base operating system. It (having ) previously been included in the IBM OS/2 Extended Edition 1.2 only.
Re:
http://www-306.ibm.com/software/awdtools/rexx/library/rexxos2.htmlIf you use OS/2 or eCs, then you've got rexx installed as it's integrated into the OS.
The rexx tool is just rexx code that solve a specific task. You don't compile the code, it's a text-file that instruct the interpreter to perform certain things. If you want higher performance decoding into binary data then you may want to use dll's that can do the job faster.
It should work on any OS as it doesn't rely on external functions (dll's) but may require that the interpreter can handle certain functions.
It's possible that it can help you out decoding spread sheet data, but what do you have in mind?
Rexx is a scripting language, you'd rather use C/C++ or some other traditional language and compile and use rexx on top. I'd rather think of it as the ease-of-use language to improve the every day chores in OS/2-eCS instead of VisualBasic/LotusScript that other use. REXX would certainly be a great choise to have as e.g. the scription language and functions (ERR, LEFT etc.) in some spread sheet application.
There are some obsticles you need to take into consideration if you want to handle files.
1) I haven't used rexx for OS/2 EE 1.2, so some features may not be there as in the Warp 3/4, eCS version that I usually write for.
2) Don't think that older spread sheets (1-2-3 and/or Excel files) got a form similar to xml, they're more like binary data only. So you need to know the binary sequence that precede the data you want to extract.
3) You need to know the format of the data to decode as I did (or found out on the net). ClipArt come as base64 (see other post) and someone had already written and included some code in Rexx Tips & Tricks that i modified.
4) ooxml may contain encryptions and require special software, but it's possible if you have inside knowledge to extract something there as well.