Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bbn!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!tektronix!orca!tekecs!frip!andrew
From: andrew@frip.gwd.tek.com (Andrew Klossner)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: death of nargs(3) (Was: sun-3 dbx, arguments, hacking, help...)
Message-ID: <9945@tekecs.TEK.COM>
Date: 26 Apr 88 15:05:59 GMT
References: <1641@homxb.UUCP> <7765@brl-smoke.ARPA>
Sender: nobody@tekecs.TEK.COM
Organization: Tektronix, Wilsonville, Oregon
Lines: 13

[]

	"This function used to be called nargs() and it was removed
	from PDP-11 UNIX when the PDP-11/70 came out, precisely because
	it became clear that programs that relied on it would have
	problems when ported to new machines."

Specifically, because it couldn't be implemented in a process with
separate I&D space, because there is no way (short of a system call)
for such a process to look at its own instructions.

  -=- Andrew Klossner   (decvax!tektronix!tekecs!andrew)       [UUCP]
                        (andrew%tekecs.tek.com@relay.cs.net)   [ARPA]