Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!uunet!world!iecc!compilers-sender From: lins@apple.com (Chuck Lins) Newsgroups: comp.compilers Subject: Parameter Passing Via Registers Keywords: optimize, registers, Pascal, Modula Message-ID: <1991Apr30.022048.4539@iecc.cambridge.ma.us> Date: 29 Apr 91 17:54:04 GMT Sender: compilers-sender@iecc.cambridge.ma.us Reply-To: Chuck Lins Organization: Compilers Central Lines: 23 Approved: compilers@iecc.cambridge.ma.us Execution units are the enforcement agents of the RISC revolution. Does anyone know how nested procedures affect the ability to pass parameters via registers? If there was no up-level access everything would work fine, but with this facility you get all sorts of problems. Uplevel access would also seem to affect dataflow analysis (the compiler could think that a variable is 'dead' when in reality it's going to get accessed by a nested local procedure. Maybe all the potential hair is why Pascal and Modula-2 compiler writers just pass all parameters via the stack. Are there (nice) solutions to these problems. References welcome. Thanks in advance from, Chuck Lins lins@apple.com [Can one reference a named parameter in an enclosing procedure? If so, I can imagine that would force them onto the stack. -John] -- Send compilers articles to compilers@iecc.cambridge.ma.us or {ima | spdcc | world}!iecc!compilers. Meta-mail to compilers-request.