Questions tagged [stack]
Use the stack tag for questions relating to the implementation and design of stack-based languages.
12 questions
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How are C11 compilers calculating by how much to change the stack pointer before `goto` if the program uses variable-length arrays?
So, obviously, the C compiler, when compiling gotos, before inserting the jump instruction, needs to insert ...
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Function call in single pass compiler for B
I've been implementing a B compiler for x86 assembly for a while now and have been asking one or two questions in Retrocomputing.
My tools for implementing it is using flex/bison with C.
Recently I've ...
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Delimited continuations and foreign functions
Guile Scheme has had support for delimited continuations for over a decade. Much was written about it in a 2012 blog post: guile and delimited continuations.
They have a limitation: continuations that ...
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How is Rosetta 2 capable of translating x87 instructions (which are stack-based) to ARM machine code (where the FPU is register-based)?
Rosetta 2 is a program that enables the new ARM-based Macs to run programs for old x86-based Macs by translating x86 machine code to ARM machine code. But how does it do that? What seems especially ...
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Should a virtual machine stack have a limited size?
I'm writing a register- and stack-based virtual machine. My goal is to have something easy to use and general purpose, so I abstain from any form of hardware limitation in its design. Since my VM's ...
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What prevents languages from having arbitrary sized return data on the stack?
While programming, I often wonder what prevents languages from allowing arbitrary sized stack returns, like this:
...
user3394
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What are the implications of implementing variable-length arrays?
At first C did not have variable-length arrays; all array sizes must be compile times constants. Then, in C99, variable-length arrays, a controversial addition, were added, permitting runtime-sized ...
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What are the pros and cons of register-based VMs and stack-based VMs?
What are the pros and cons of choosing a register or stack based VM for a language implementation?
For example Python has stack-based virtual machine, while Lua has register-based VM.
What makes a ...
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What are differences between stack- and register-based virtual machine's bytecode commands?
What are differences between stack- and register-based virtual machine's bytecode commands?
For example Python has stack-based virtual machine.
But Lua has register-based vm.
So, what are the ...
- 1,727
15
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Segmented Stack Efficiency
Segmented stacks are one method to enable the growth of execution stacks in multi-threaded paradigms at runtime, instead of having to statically pre-allocate a fixed-sized stack at compile time.
Some ...
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How to Add Static Typing to a Stack Language?
What level of static typing can be added to a stack-based language? I know it's impossible to fully statically type some stack languages:
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What operations are common in stack-based languages?
A stack-based language necessarily contains at least "push" and "pop" instructions. However, these typically aren't the only ways to manipulate the stack. For example, several ...
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