The binder can perform editing services either automatically or as directed by you with control statements. These editing capabilities allow you to modify programs on a section basis, so you can modify a section within a module without having to recompile the entire source program.

The editing capabilities let you modify either an entire section or external symbols within a section. Sections can be deleted, replaced, or arranged in sequence; external symbols can be deleted or changed. See External symbols for an explanation of external symbols.

Any editing service is requested in reference to an input module. The resulting output program module reflects the request; no actual change, deletion, or replacement is made to the input module. The requested alterations are used to control binder processing, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Editing a module. This example illustrates how the ENTRY and REPLACE statements can be used to edit a program module.