Re: Compiler and interpreter origins

Lauri Alanko wrote:
>
> Firstly, back when everything was done in pure machine code or
> assembly, how common was the use of self-modifying code?


The first couple of machines I programmed (IBM 1620, IBM 1401) had no
address or index registers of any kind. So self-modifying code was
the only possible way to write things like loops going through arrays.
You could avoid getting hopelessly bogged down in tar, by working out
a couple of what would today be called design patterns and then
following them downright slavishly.


Later, the university paid extra for a 1620 "special feature" of
indirect addressing, which made it immeasurably easier. By the time I
discovered linked data structure, It was on an IBM 1410, which, as I
recall, had 3 index registers.

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