Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!amdcad!ames!nrl-cmf!cmcl2!brl-adm!brl-smoke!gwyn
From: gwyn@brl-smoke.ARPA (Doug Gwyn )
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Limit to array size under cc?
Message-ID: <7173@brl-smoke.ARPA>
Date: 24 Jan 88 22:40:32 GMT
References: <3537@ames.arpa> <594X@esunix.UUCP> <570@cresswell.quintus.UUCP>
Reply-To: gwyn@brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn (VLD/VMB) <gwyn>)
Organization: Ballistic Research Lab (BRL), APG, MD.
Lines: 20

In article <570@cresswell.quintus.UUCP> ok@quintus.UUCP (Richard A. O'Keefe) writes:
>In article <594X@esunix.UUCP>, rushfort@esunix.UUCP (Kevin Rushforth) writes:
>The [stack] limit is not compiled-in.

On some implementations (even of 4.nBSD), it is.  For example,
Gould UTX-32.

>4BSD systems also have a rather nice function
>	alloca(size)
>allocates that much space in the stack; it will go away when the
>calling function returns.

alloca() predates BSD.  Its use was stamped out in real UNIX,
because not all implementations could support a reasonable
alloca().  Inspired by discussions with J Q Johnson and others,
I came up with a "mostly portable" implementation of alloca()
that I posted a couple of years ago.  It doesn't work on some
IBMs and other inhospitable implementations, though.  Contact
me if you need a copy.
	- Gwyn@BRL.MIL