Chris, yes, my perspective is different than yours. Mine is for serviceable, well documented code (I'm absolutely NOT implying that your's isn't). There are several folks in my department and we all service all the code. There's no value in being criptic or concise to the point that you have to be a 40 year veteran of assembler coding to service a module. (I've only been coding since '86...)
Today, I would argue there this a huge need to know the macros, and not the expansions. Tie yourself to manually coding the plists and now you've entered doubt and uncertainty, and a service-point-check when migrating to new macro libs with new operating systems and new hardware. Does IBM say "protect your investment"? Yes, and that's a good thing. :) Todd ----- Original Message ----- From: "Chris Mason" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Newsgroups: bit.listserv.ibm-main To: <IBM-MAIN@BAMA.UA.EDU> Sent: Tuesday, February 21, 2006 2:54 PM Subject: Re: z/Architecture Principles of Operation (SA22-7832-04) > Todd, > > My assembler-writing days started in 1967 when storage was not all that > abundant and economy was paramount*. Concise coding became an ingrained > habit and I was often upset by inefficient macro expansions. Thus I > preferred, for example, to manipulate my register usage to fit what I knew > was needed by the coming macro expansion. Finally, there was really no need > for the macro at all - except to document the SVC call - just like WTO > MF=(E,(1)) for SVC 35 below now I take a look at it. So I guess that's the > diametric opposite of your approach :-) > > * I was once on the edge of a project to create some spooling code for DOS - > that's the VSE of today. The target was 4K since it was designed to be able > to fit into a 32K - 64K if you were rich - System 360 Model 30 or 40. One > suggestion from the "review panel" was to use the X'1A' of - I think - the > AR instruction in place of a packed decimal 1 constant. > > Chris Mason > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
