I was looking at the LOC and STOC instructions and thought: You know, if instead of LOC R1,D2(B2),M3 they had made it LOC R1,M3,D2(B2) then it would match the syntax of CLM, ICM and STCM.
Perhaps the designers of this syntax would say that the "old folks" got it wrong when they put M3 between R1 and D2(B2). Note that I am not talking about the instruction bit pattern layout - that's all regulation perfect AFAIAC. Back to the "new" syntax - do you think that they were considering instructions where the mask is optional, such as SSKE R1,R2[,M3] where M3 is optional (and assumed to be zero if not specified)? (By which I mean, it is easier for coders if the optional operand is at the end of the operand list.) Cheers, Greg ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
