Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!pacbell!ames!mailrus!cornell!batcomputer!itsgw!steinmetz!uunet!sco!seanf
From: seanf@sco.COM (Sean Fagan)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: passing variable numbers of arguments
Message-ID: <2050@scolex>
Date: 11 Jan 89 07:27:18 GMT
References: <899@thor.stolaf.edu> <15341@mimsy.UUCP> <449@marob.MASA.COM> <8708@alice.UUCP> <821@auspex.UUCP>
Reply-To: seanf@scolex.UUCP (Sean Fagan)
Distribution: na
Organization: The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc.
Lines: 16

>>                                        Wouldn't it have been reasonable for
>> the standard to specify that the compiler should enable the called function
>> to determine the number of parameters that were passed, by automatically
>> passing this information as a first implicit parameter, for example?
>For one thing, that would slow down every call a little.

Some machines (VAXen and WE32100's) already do this.

It doesn't slow the call down, since it's always there.  However, it could
be argued that the call could have been made faster by not wasting microcode
space...

-- 
Sean Eric Fagan | "Joy is in the ears that hear, not in the mouth that speaks."
seanf@sco.UUCP  |      -- Saltheart Foamfollower (Stephen R. Donaldson)
(408) 458-1422  | Any opinions expressed are my own, not my employers'.