Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!jarthur!nntp-server.caltech.edu!pooh!madler
From: madler@pooh.caltech.edu (Mark Adler)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.handhelds
Subject: Re: CLEAR-TO-MARK code
Message-ID: <1991Jan29.013827.11904@nntp-server.caltech.edu>
Date: 29 Jan 91 01:38:27 GMT
References: <3306@gmuvax2.gmu.edu>
Sender: news@nntp-server.caltech.edu
Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
Lines: 14
Nntp-Posting-Host: pooh


>>      I simply cannot imagine how a program can be written to have no idea
>> what it has thrown up on the stack.

I'm sure you can come up with such an example, but aside from that, consider
the difficulty of tracking the stack usage at all program exit points,
especially error exits.  And then consider program maintainability (i.e.
changing the program).  And also consider having to keep track, at runtime,
of variable size objects decomposed on the stack.  Then, finally, reconsider
the clear-to-mark idea, and you will breath a sigh of relief if you had been
considering all those other hassles.

Mark Adler
madler@pooh.caltech.edu