Article View: comp.arch
Article #2547Re: Self-modifying code
From: Ed Nilges
Date: Thu, 12 Oct 1989 16:21
Date: Thu, 12 Oct 1989 16:21
34 lines
1674 bytes
1674 bytes
I have followed this discussion with interest. In modern very-high-
level interpreted languages like REXX, an interesting variant of the
SMC issue emerges. This is the use of the INTERPRET verb:
INTERPRET expression
evaluates "expression" and executes it as a REXX statement. Some of
the same arguments pro and con are used with reference to the use of
INTERPRET: pro:
1. It's "efficient"
2. It allows me to execute more complex and sophisticated
algorithms in which code is data and data is code, eg.,
implementation of expert systems
con:
1. It's "confusing"
2. It breaks associated technology. Traditional SMC breaks
instruction caches and other such contraptions, whereas
use of INTERPRET breaks compilers. This last point is not
a necessity, since the compiler could generate code for
lazy evaluation of the expression, but the only current
compiler for REXX simply prohibits INTERPRET.
Other examples of this SMC variant include DO in Hypertalk.
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Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!aplcen!haven!udel!princeton!phoenix!pucc!EGNILGES From: EGNILGES@pucc.Princeton.EDU (Ed Nilges) Newsgroups: comp.arch Subject: Re: Self-modifying code Message-ID: <9850@pucc.Princeton.EDU> Date: 12 Oct 89 16:21:00 GMT References: <1080@mipos3.intel.com> <48682@ricerca.UUCP> <236@bbxsda.UUCP> <16542@siemens.siemens.com> Reply-To: EGNILGES@pucc.Princeton.EDU Organization: Princeton University, NJ Lines: 34 Disclaimer: Author bears full responsibility for contents of this article