The NOOPTIMIZE attribute prohibits the compiler from optimizing code for the compilation unit or routine. The NOOPTIMIZE attribute guarantees left-to-right evaluation order with full evaluation of both operands of the AND and OR Boolean operators to aid in diagnosing all potential programming errors. If you wish to have short circuit evaluation even with the NOOPTIMIZE attribute, then use the AND_THEN and OR_ELSE Boolean operators. See the "HP Pascal Language Reference Manual" for the complete description of using the NOOPTIMIZE attribute.