CLIST and REXX edit macros

A CLIST edit macro is made up of CLIST statements. A REXX edit macro is made up of REXX statements. Each statement falls into one of these categories:
  • Edit macro commands
  • CLIST or REXX command procedure statements and comments
  • ISPF and PDF dialog service requests
  • TSO and other environment commands
All statements are initially processed by the TSO command processor, which scans them and does symbolic variable substitution. It is important to recognize the different kinds of CLIST and REXX statements listed because:
  • They are processed by different components of the system
  • They have different syntax rules and error handling
  • Their descriptions are in different manuals

Edit macros are invoked by the editor using the ISPF SELECT service. For REXX macros, the BARRIER keyword is specified to ensure the REXX data stack is preserved across macro invocations.