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Within Microprocessor s and other logic devices, flags are commonly used to control or indicate the intermediate or final state or outcome of different operations. Microprocessors typically have, for example, a Status Register that is composed of such flags, and the flags are used to indicate various post-operation conditions, such as when there has been an Arithmetic Overflow . The flags can be utilized in subsequent operations, such as in processing conditional Jump Instruction s. For example a ''je'' (Jump if Equal) instruction in the X86 Assembly Language will result in a jump if the Z (zero) flag was set by some previous operation. It has been suggested that the term was derived from the small flags on the Mailbox es used for delivery of letters and small shipments in Rural and Suburban areas of the USA, which are customarily raised by the postman as an indication that new mail is in. A Command Line Switch is also referred to as a flag. Command Line programs often start with an option Parser that translates command line switches into flags in the sense of this article. |
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