Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Variable argument lists.
Message-ID: <1988May16.060452.16775@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <14139@brl-adm.ARPA> <7864@alice.UUCP>, <1740@rpp386.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 16 May 88 06:04:52 GMT

> the addition of an extra instruction to stack the number of arguments
> can hardly be considered significantly slowing down a function call.

I consider it significantly slowing down a function call.  If you live
on a machine where each function call takes dozens of instructions, then
I understand your disregard for yet one more.  Some of us have machines
with efficient function calls, and we would like to keep them that way!

The real objection is to the overhead of that extra instruction when no
portable program, no standard library function, and no formal standard
has any requirement for it.  You may think it is oh-so-useful; the rest
of us have been doing fine without it for quite a while, thank you, and
don't see any reason why we should pay the price in performance.
-- 
NASA is to spaceflight as            |  Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
the Post Office is to mail.          | {ihnp4,decvax,uunet!mnetor}!utzoo!henry