Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!cmcl2!nrl-cmf!ames!necntc!dandelion!ulowell!hawk!hvo
From: hvo@hawk.ulowell.edu (Huy D. Vo)
Newsgroups: comp.os.vms
Subject: Re: 2 C questions
Message-ID: <5981@swan.ulowell.edu>
Date: 5 Apr 88 04:48:26 GMT
References: <12387779883.20.STEINBERGER@KL.SRI.COM>
Sender: news@swan.ulowell.edu
Reply-To: hvo@hawk.ulowell.edu (Huy D. Vo)
Organization: University of Lowell, CS Dept.
Lines: 19

In article <12387779883.20.STEINBERGER@KL.SRI.COM> STEINBERGER@KL.SRI.COM (Richard Steinberger) writes:
>C vs. Fortran speed:  Since C variables are automatic (i.e., dynamic) by
>default and Fortran variables are static, is it fair to conclude that in
>general, a routine in C having the same number of local variables as
>a "roughly identical" Fortarn routine will take a bit longer because
>the OS must allocate (and deallocate) space for the local variables?

This requires one instruction to raise the stack pointer to point
beyond the C local variables.

Now my point: most of the time, C functions want values, whereas
Fortran subroutines invariably expect addresses. If fetching an
address is faster than fetching a value, then Fortran wins. Any 
microcode experts out there?

How about some benchmarks?

Huy D. Vo
hvo@hawk.ulowell.edu