. . . continuing

About the construction

|          DC    AL1(64)        A byte containing the number 64

I am even less enthusiastic;  z/Architecture now supports loading and
storing single-byte signed binary integers in the same way that it
supports halfword ones, and "containing the number 64" is thus at best
ambiguous.  Moreover, I have never really liked using AL1 or an LA
instruction to obtain small unsigned binary constants, although like
everyone else I have resorted to them on occasion.  The assembler's
BYTE bif is much more flexible.  I can write
lus_64 seta BYTE(x'40')         --signed single-byte +64
|&minus_64 seta BYTE(x'd0')     --signed single-byte -64

In the end Steve and I differ sharply about the usefulness and
felicity of macro-intensive code, and I am content that this should be
the case.  I have indeed come to suspect strongly that we are likely
to disagree about most things.  I will arrange a small public
celebration when I find that we in fact agree about something
significant.

John Gilmore, Ashland, MA 01721 - USA

Reply via email to