<snip> Well, in reality you are right of course (who cares about the i-cache?) but in theory one is branching around and NOT crashing, so not wasting the i-cache is a desirable goal. </snip>
A program coded with any thought for performance would not be "branching around and NOT crashing". It would be branching out of line upon detecting the error so that the normal path takes no branch at all. Thus instead of "BZ NOERROR" (or JZ or whatever), "BNZ ERROR". Peter Relson z/OS Core Technology Design
