Well....
As demonstrated by this very discussion the first form will baffle just about
any programmer. And the 'missing' comma is (at least with us) a bad habit as
well.
> LA R3,-4(R2) Set R3 to 4 less than R2
>
> or:
>
> LA R3,4092(R1,R2) Set R3 to 4 less than R2
>
This wouldn't get my blessing either. The instruction is clear, but now the
comment will lead to raised eyebrows. Instead code:
LA R3,4092(R1,R2) R3 := R2 - 4096 + 4092 (==> R2 - 4)
It is all very cute and clever but we shouldn't forget that this code has to be
maintained. Any construct or notation that makes it harder for somebody else to
understand what is going later on will cause problems one way or the other. In
this particular case the original coder would probably have a hard time
understanding what's happening if he revisited the code five years later....
This applies to any language, not especially to HLASM, but some languages do
seem to offer more opportunities to obfuscate function and mislead the
unsuspecting reader.
Fred!
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