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From: preece@uicsl.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.lang
Subject: Re: Self-modifying code - (nf)
Message-ID: <4931@uiucdcs.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 16-Jan-84 22:53:32 EST
Article-I.D.: uiucdcs.4931
Posted: Mon Jan 16 22:53:32 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 18-Jan-84 06:34:54 EST
Lines: 19

#R:fortune:-215700:uicsl:6200007:000:794
uicsl!preece    Jan 16 08:21:00 1984

As with most programming tricks, there is nothing that says that
self-modifying code HAS to be obscure or hard to understand or even
unstructured.  The principaly rule must simply be: You must make
clear to the reader exactly what you are doing.  in the case of
self-modifying code this would mean (1) using an appropriate mechanism
and (2) providing comments specifying exactly when the modification
takes place, what the modification does, and where the code is that
performs the modification.

In assembly language it would also be nice, where speed permits, to
stick an Ascii constant (skipped over in the program flow) at the
appropriate place so that the run-time effect is clearly marked (for
the benefit of those debugging without source code).

scott preece
ihnp4!uiucdcs!uicsl!preece