Re: [Pgubook-readers] Your first program (question)

[Jonathan Bartlett]

>
> In this example, there is something I am wondering. Why use a .long to
> store the numbers in the data_items? If a .byte is between 0 and 255,
> why not use a .byte instead as to save space? Or is there anothere
> reason? I would have thought that you would use byte to save memory.
>

Basically just to keep it simple.  Saving space is not really a concern in
the early part of the book.  I'll have to look, but I'm also not certain
I've covered the byte-sized instructions yet in the book.  Also, it makes
sense to do it this way since the byte liitation is only because of the
return mechanism - so it should be easy to modify it to work with larger
numbers after learning how UNIX files work.

Jon