The assembler has no problem with allowing relative branches outside a control section. Whether it works or not is a question for your operating system's binder and loader. The z/OS binder and loader were enhanced many releases ago to accommodate this.
For example, EXTRN OTHER BRASL 14,OTHER Or perhaps EXTRN OTHER LARL 15,OTHER BASR 14,15 This is not quite the same as allowing a relative branch to "low storage" but if the module in question is starting at 0, then isn't such a branch actually a branch within the same module (not necessarily the same CSECT)? In any case, you can't in general relative-branch to something in a DSECT that has a USING (unless perhaps that USING is on a label not via a register). A relative branch to a fixed location from a place that is not fixed (as would be the case for a module that is loaded "normally") is a contradiction in terms. Peter Relson z/OS Core Technology Design
