Stack size calc
28-Jun-88 03:43:14
Sb: #132239-Stack size calc
Fm: Vic Wagner 76046,3004
To: Scott Ballantyne 70066,603
This message turned up in search, but its forum couldn’t be identified from the original transcript, so it may not be linked into its thread.
As I gather, the ONLY reason that C 'allows' for right to left evaluation
is because Ritchie INSISTED that the calling sequence be: push, push,
push, call. On a downards growing stack (assuming that you want the
arguments to appear as a structure of similar composition in memory) that
means to evaluate the arguments from right to left.
***NOTE*** this is SAME person who INSISTS that the epression:
c = *a++ + *a++
is allowed to be equivalent to:
c = *a+*a; a+=2;
in that the multiple ++ operators can be 'optimized' into one operation.
If you have such persons designing lanugages, it's no wonder there are
ambiguities and silliness. <pause in editorial comment>