Of course! But now let's say there's only one instance of TOKEN_LEN
being referenced and it's highly unlikely to ever be changed. That's
the case I'm talking about here - which I think happens far more often
than fields that change their size over time.
Sometimes people go a bit overboard coding for a future that never
happens - that's what I'm trying to describe. One example: I remember
looking at someone's COBOL source code that did a procedure call. That
procedure was a single line that called another procedure. So off to
another member, and all that final procedure did was a single MOVE
statement. All this was to comply with structured programming methods
designed to handle future changes that would likely never happen.
On 6/17/2021 8:19 AM, Wayne Driscoll wrote:
Until the definition of a token changes such that the new length is 32 instead
of 5. Changing the one macro that defines TOKEN_LEN is much easier than
searching for all instances of LA Rx,5 and then determining if it is process
a TOKEN, or if the value is for some other reason.
Wayne Driscoll
Rocket Software
Note - All opinions are strictly my own.
From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Tom
Brennan
Sent: Wednesday, June 16, 2021 9:23 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Coding for the future
EXTERNAL EMAIL
I'd actually rather read LA R7,5 so I don't have to hunt for where
Token_Len is defined.
On 6/16/2021 3:24 PM, Charles Mills wrote:
And if the instruction itself were
LA R7,Token_Len
Then it would be more clear and more maintainable.
Charles
-----Original Message-----
From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf
Of Jesse 1 Robinson
Sent: Wednesday, June 16, 2021 3:07 PM
To: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Coding for the future
Avoid embedding code specific details in comments.
Init loop counter in R7 to 5
A comment should not name anything explicitly stated in the instruction. 'R7'
in the comment is not merely redundant. If the loop register needs to be
changed later on, then the comment will have to be updated also. If it's not
updated, then it becomes misleading, perhaps worse than no comment at all. I
would prefer
LA R7,5 Prepare to search for delimiter
.
.
J.O.Skip Robinson
Southern California Edison Company
Electric Dragon Team Paddler
SHARE MVS Program Co-Manager
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626-543-6132 Office ⇐=== NEW
[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>
-----Original Message-----
From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List
<[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> On Behalf Of Mike
Schwab
Sent: Wednesday, June 16, 2021 2:17 PM
To: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>
Subject: (External):Re: EXTERNAL: Coding for the future
*** EXTERNAL EMAIL - Use caution when opening links or attachments ***
But what is Register 7 going to be used for, and why does it need a 5?
I. E. Init loop counter in R7 to 5.
On Wed, Jun 16, 2021 at 11:48 AM Savor, Thomas
<[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>>
wrote:
==> LA R7,5 Put 5 in register 7
It depends on the intended target audience. Now I and you know that a 5 is put in
Register 7, but many shops have only a couple Assembler Programmers....but many more
Cobol programmers. Telling "them" that a 5 is put in Register 7 can be helpful
to solving a problem or learning what a program does.
Way too many Cobol programmers that I run into are scared of looking at Assembler...like
just looking at it or trying to learn it is going to give you Ebola...so even very basic
instructions can be helpful...especially if Instruction says LA 7,5 then it really helps
"them".
Thanks,
Tom
-----Original Message-----
From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List
<[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> On
Behalf Of Seymour J Metz
Sent: Wednesday, June 16, 2021 11:58 AM
To: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>
Subject: Re: EXTERNAL: Coding for the future
Long ago in a galaxy far away, they handed each of us a stack of manuals and
told use that we were all enrolled in a 7070 class and had to read all of the
manuals before the class started. It turned out that some of the students were
answering questions that stumped the instructor, and that if you read the
manuals you didn't need the course.
The worst are the ones that score based on the quantity of comments instead of
their quality. That guaranties cluttered and unhelpful comments. People will
behave in such a fashion as to optimize how their organization ranks them; if
teir grades or performance reviews depend on doing something sub-optimal, then
that's what they'll do. Measure the things that actually matter.
I generally frown on marking students down on stylistic issues like
labels on separate lines, but I will mark down for
LA R7,5 Put 5 in register 7
Don't tell me what LA does, tell me why you're putting that value in that
register. If there is nothing useful to say in the comment, then omit it.
--
Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz
https://eur02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fmason<https://eur02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fmason>
gmu.edu/~smetz3<http://gmu.edu/~smetz3>
&data=04%7C01%7Cthomas.savor%40fisglobal.com%7Cb
e99c6f1bde54085afe408d930df9961%7Ce3ff91d834c84b15a0b418910a6ac575%7C0
%7C0%7C637594559179362403%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAi
LCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=kaKOh2
8RkIFxgof3dWR3QMgfWMAyZeQ8ijJ7XLqXpXE%3D&reserved=0
________________________________________
From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [[email protected]] on
behalf of Phil Smith III [[email protected]]
Sent: Wednesday, June 16, 2021 11:17 AM
To: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>
Subject: Re: EXTERNAL: Coding for the future
Crawford, Robert C. wrote, in part:
Oh, and I used to this:
LOOP MVC HERE,THERE
And now do this:
LOOP DS 0H
MVC HERE,THERE
Yes, I was taught that early. Then I took a Commodore SuperPet
assembler class (after writing 370 assembler for several years). That
assembler had no
DS 0H
but it did have
EQU *
So I used that-and was marked down for it. At that point, I stopped taking the
class seriously.
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