Kinds are calling conventions

Stack Management and Calling Conventions

Despite the advantages and simplicity of stack machines, they are not very often found or supported in commercial computer systems. This paper explains the need for stacks in modern programming languages and describes three dimensions used to categorize the different stack implementations. Furthermore, we will discuss the application and support of stacks and their integration in modern computi...

A Formal Specification for Procedure Calling Conventions

A Formal Model and Specification Language for Procedure Calling Conventions

ly, data placement definitions are functions that map values onto machine resources. The functions take a value and corresponding attributes (such as data type) and decide where the value belongs. More precisely, placement definitions are finite state machines, since the mapping is order-dependent. Figure 2 illustrates an application of a placement definition to place procedure arguments. In th...

Construction of Systems Software Using Specifications of Procedure Calling Conventions

The procedure calling convention impacts the operation of many system software components. The interface between procedures, which is established by the calling convention, facilitates separate compilation of program modules and interoperability of programming languages. The procedure calling convention dictates the way that program values are communicated, and how machine resources are shared ...

Custom Calling Conventions in a Portable Assembly Language

Calling conventions are so difficult to implement and maintain that people rarely experiment with alternatives. The primary sources of difficulty appear to be parameter passing and stack-frame layout. To implement parameter passing, we use the automata developed by Bailey and Davidson, but we have developed a new specification language that is implementable directly in the compiler. To implemen...