update loops concept docs#461
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kotp
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Jun 17, 2026
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I'm using two LLMs (Claude and Gemini) to review every concept in the syllabus for typos and conceptual gaps. Two suggestions seemed interesting:
loopsconcept emphasizes theloopinstructions, but they are rarely used in practice because they are slow. I confirmed this against Agner Fog's instruction tables, a classic reference. Only a few AMD CPUs support them with a reasonable speed.recursionconcept glosses over the stack frame, without going into practical concerns such as saving variables on the stack and using a prologue to keep track of each call frame.This PR addresses the first suggestion.
I removed the section on the
loopinstructions from theloopsconcept's introduction.md, but kept it in about.md, now with a note explaining that these instructions are slow.While there, I added two notes to introduction.md: one on using instructions other than
cmpto set flags (a student coming from theconditionalsconcept would be usingcmpfor everything), and an advanced note on macrofusion. Both topics are explored in more depth in about.md.