94 lines
3 KiB
Plaintext
94 lines
3 KiB
Plaintext
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.NH 2
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Parameters and local variables.
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.PP
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In the EM calling sequence, the calling procedure
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pushes its parameters on the stack
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before doing the CAL.
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The called routine first saves some
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status information on the stack and then
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allocates space for its own locals
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(also on the stack).
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Usually, one special purpose register,
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the Local Base (LB) register,
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is used to access both the locals and the
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parameters.
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If memory is highly segmented,
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the stack frames of the caller and the callee
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may be allocated in different fragments;
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an extra Argument Base (AB) register is used
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in this case to access the actual parameters.
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See 4.2 of
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.[
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keizer architecture
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.]
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for further details.
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.PP
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If a procedure call is expanded in line,
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there are two problems:
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.IP 1. 3
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No stack frame will be allocated for the called procedure;
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we must find another place to put its locals.
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.IP 2.
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The LB register cannot be used to access the actual
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parameters;
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as the CAL instruction is deleted, the LB will
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still point to the local base of the \fIcalling\fR procedure.
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.LP
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The local variables of the called procedure will
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be put in the stack frame of the calling procedure,
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just after its own locals.
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The size of the stack frame of the
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calling procedure will be increased
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during its entire lifetime.
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Therefore our model will allow a
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limit to be set on the number of bytes
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for locals that the called procedure may have
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(see next section).
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.PP
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There are several alternatives to access the parameters.
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An actual parameter may be any auxiliary expression,
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which we will refer to as
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the \fIactual parameter expression\fR.
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The value of this expression is stored
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in a location on the stack (see above),
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the \fIparameter location\fR.
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.sp 0
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The alternatives for accessing parameters are:
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.IP -
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save the value of the stackpointer at the point of the CAL
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in a temporary variable X;
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this variable can be used to simulate the AB register, i.e.
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parameter locations are accessed via an offset to
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the value of X.
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.IP -
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create a new temporary local variable T for
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the parameter (in the stack frame of the caller);
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every access to the parameter location must be changed
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into an access to T.
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.IP -
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do not evaluate the actual parameter expression before the call;
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instead, substitute this expression for every use of the
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parameter location.
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.LP
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The first method may be expensive if X is not
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put in a register.
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We will not use this method.
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The time required to evaluate and access the
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parameters when the second method is used
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will not differ much from the normal
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calling sequence (i.e. not in line call).
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It is not expensive, but there are no
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extra savings either.
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The third method is essentially the 'by name'
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parameter mechanism of Algol60.
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If the actual parameter is just a numeric constant,
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it is advantageous to use it.
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Yet, there are several circumstances
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under which it cannot or should not be used.
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We will deal with this in the next section.
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.sp 0
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In general we will use the third method,
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if it is possible and desirable.
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Such parameters will be called \fIin line parameters\fR.
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In all other cases we will use the second method.
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