Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!emory!wa4mei!nanovx!msa3b!mgphl
From: mgphl@msa3b.UUCP (Michael Phillips)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.asm370
Subject: Re: why code in 370 Assembler
Message-ID: <1618@msa3b.UUCP>
Date: 27 Apr 91 19:58:38 GMT
References: <1991Apr17.120304.16874@mtu.edu> <1612@msa3b.UUCP> <1991Apr23.190810.16593@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> <1991Apr24.045329.17509@osh3.OSHA.GOV>
Organization: Dun and Bradstreet Software, Inc., Atlanta, GA
Lines: 24

chip@osh3.OSHA.GOV (Chip Yamasaki) writes:

>course in school (and I didn't know then either), but does that MVC/MVCL
>instruction resolve to 1 machine code instruction?  If so, then I
>suppose you're right.  If not then you're back to square one.

MVC and MVCL are single machine code instructions.  However, the MVCL is 
implemented in micro code in such a way as to allow the task to be interrupted 
and restarted.  You also have to load 4 registers prior to executing an MVCL.

>Also the one programmer here who does write ALC always uses a huge
>library of ALC routines and macros.  Isn't that about the same as
>calling a function in C?

Not at all! A *well* coded assembler macro generates exactly the object code
needed and nothing else.  The conditional assembly language of the 360/370
world allows one to create quite powerfull macros ( of course the SYNTAX
of that stuff will drive you crazy ;-) ).  

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| Michael G. Phillips          | "Only two things are infinite, the universe | 
| Dun & Bradstreet Software    | and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about |
| ..!gatech!nanovx!msa3b!mgphl | the former"   --   Albert Einstein          |
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