Peter -

As to "newbie" questions, I suspect you MAY be the only person on the
planet just learning MPE :-)  Just kidding; I'm sure others are being
thrust into the same situation.  However, there are LOTS of folks with
MPE backgrounds looking for work so . . .

As for the "JCL" questions (and I think that's a fairly common term
for HP's command language), I'll give it a shot:

1.  Commands typed interactively don't require any special
"introduction".  Commands entered into the STREAM command processor
require a leading character, by default the exclamation point.
Commands typed into programs other than the command interpreter (e.g.
EDITOR) generally require the colon as a leading character to identify
them as MPE commands.

2.  The SETVAR command can be used to create user variables for use in
command files or scripts.

3.  If you haven't discovered it, the HP documentation at docs.hp.com
is invaluable.  The MPE/iX Commands Reference Manual documents
(almost) all the MPE commands.  Your site may also have access to the
documentation on CD-ROM (HP Instant Information I believe).  There are
numerous other useful online resources including the HP-3000 FAQ
mentioned each month in this newsgroup.

Regards.

Glenn

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