Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!dimacs.rutgers.edu!bcm!rice!uw-beaver!sumax!amc-gw!pilchuck!dataio!fnx!nazgul!bright
From: bright@nazgul.UUCP (Walter Bright)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: scope of malloc
Keywords: alloca
Message-ID: <169@nazgul.UUCP>
Date: 20 Nov 90 04:15:45 GMT
References: <3739@skye.ed.ac.uk> <14448@smoke.brl.mil> <650@metaware.metaware.com> <8790@scolex.sco.COM>
Reply-To: bright@nazgul.UUCP (Walter Bright)
Distribution: usa
Organization: Zortech, Seattle
Lines: 15

/I guess with a little help from a god, writing a whole compiler to handle
/one routine can be considered "reasonable," but most of us don't necessarily
/think so (this coming from someone who worked on compilers for quite a
/while).

I write compilers for a living (Zortech's). I implemented alloca() as a
compiler intrinsic in a few hours, including a test suite for it. Mostly
it consisted of setting a flag telling the code generator to always do
a full stack frame for that function.

Most people tell me I'm conceited, but I didn't think that implementation
of alloca() was that godlike! :-) I always think of setting flags that
perturb the code generator as a kludge to be avoided.

Maybe it was that Coca-Cola induced euphoria :-)