[net.cog-eng] A language with position independence

rabson@harvard.UUCP (David Rabson) (04/17/84)

Someone asked about a language with position independence; the
supplied-with VMS default assembler, MACRO-32, implements this
rather nicely.  Macros can be defined with named arguments and
defaults, and may be called normally (with arguments in order):

	MY_MACRO	TRANSPARENT, THIS, NEGATE, IS

or with the names:

	MY_MACRO	SUBJECT=THIS, VERB=IS, MODIFIER=NEGATE,-
			PREDICATE=TRANSPARENT

In the definition of the macro, supplied values indicate defaults.

David A. Rabson	    Harvard Arts and Sciences Computer Services
		    decvax!genrad!wjh12!{rabson,hscvax!rabson,harvard!rabson}