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From: RKOGUT@BROWNVM.BITNET ("R. Kogut")
Newsgroups: comp.lang.asm370
Subject: Re: why code in 370 Assembler
Message-ID: <9104241406.AA29622@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: 24 Apr 91 13:49:04 GMT
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Reply-To: IBM 370 Assembly Programming Discussion List
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I think the point about the MVC instructions is being missed. The point is
that to copy a fixed length character string (assuming that all definitions
are properly made), then:
    MVC   TO,FROM          in BAL is clear
    TO = FROM;             in various HLL's is clearer and machine independent
    memcpy(TO,FROM,sizeof(TO)); in C is very ugly and hard to read

The C compiler may generate a single MVC, but it's harder to write and read
then assembler in this case. Many other things in C require jumping thru
hoops to accomplish simple tasks and therefore make programs hard to read.
This is not a wholesale condemnation of C, just to point out that in some
areas it has weaknesses compared to assembler.