Keystroke Programming: Labels vs. Line Numbers

[Garth Wilson]

(11-05-2014 01:22 PM)toml_12953 Wrote:  Some calculators that use both run programs faster with absolute addresses. When they execute GTO with a label, they have to search memory for the label.

The HP-41 seems to record the address offset when it finds a local label he first time, and subsequent times run faster since it only has to verify that it's still there instead of searching again. You lose that benefit if you have something like GETKEY followed by GTO IND X, since it might jump to a different place each time the program is run. My first programmable was a TI-58c which had to search for the label every time, so I did try to write with step numbers when possible.