Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!thunder.mcrcim.mcgill.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!udel!haven!adm!smoke!gwyn
From: gwyn@smoke.brl.mil (Doug Gwyn)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: Re: Computer capabilities
Message-ID: <14811@smoke.brl.mil>
Date: 10 Jan 91 17:35:49 GMT
References: <10827@ucrmath.ucr.edu> <1991Jan2.060637.7936@nntp-server.caltech.edu> <10872@ucrmath.ucr.edu>
Organization: U.S. Army Ballistic Research Laboratory, APG, MD.
Lines: 15

In article <10872@ucrmath.ucr.edu> rhyde@ucrmath.ucr.edu (randy hyde) writes:
>For "C" you  have no choice but to do this.  For Pascal, whose procedures and
>functions have a fixed number of parameters) the subroutine can pop the
>parameters rather than the caller.

Actually, a variety of implementation techniques are available for C
function linkage.  Apart from variadic functions, which require that
a ",...)" form of declaration be in scope so that the compiler knows
to generate different, less efficient linkage, C functions also have
fixed number and type of arguments.  The only real problem with
"callee pops" lies in where to return values, especially structures.
That is a solvable problem..

I understand that Ken Thompson's Plan 9 C compiler uses a really
slick function linkage.  I've seen other good examples.