Quoting Donald Knuth from MMIX 2009 [1] (the revision of the MIX architecture): "And ouch, the standard subroutine calling convention of MIX is irrevocably bas

Quoting Donald Knuth from MMIX 2009 [1] (the revision of the MIX architecture): "And ouch, the standard subroutine calling convention of MIX is irrevocably based on self-modifying instructions! Decimal arithmetic and self-modifying code were popular in 1962, but they sure have disappeared quickly as machines have gotten bigger and faster." [1] http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~uno/mmix.html http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~uno/mmix.html