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From: peter@sugar.UUCP (Peter DaSilva)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Inline assembler; a quiz  (long; sorry)
Message-ID: <377@sugar.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 10-Jul-87 08:35:10 EDT
Article-I.D.: sugar.377
Posted: Fri Jul 10 08:35:10 1987
Date-Received: Fri, 17-Jul-87 06:15:29 EDT
References: <608@zen.UUCP> <2299@hoptoad.uucp> <21211@sun.uucp> <830@omepd> <8253@utzoo.UUCP>
Organization: Sugar Land UNIX - Houston, TX
Lines: 28
Summary: But on UNIX all the sys calls glue is provided.

In article <8253@utzoo.UUCP> henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer) writes:
>> [my comments about operating systems needing heavy glue around sys calls]
>
>[UNIX systems also require glue arouns system calls]

Well, yes. But when you get a UNIX 'C' compiler you also get a library that
provides that glue for all the calls. Those of us with Amigas, Atari STs,
and IBM-PCs (in increasing order of grossness of O/S interface) find that
a lot of glue must be added in production programs. In the Amiga this is
pretty much restricted to high level interrupt handlers, but still it's
a pain to have a bunch of assembly files around. In the Atari ST the calling
conventions are mostly C, but there are some things you need to go into
assembly to do (handling ^C (!), writing desk accessories, etc). On the
IBM-PC, it's a nightmare. Many of the calls return data that high level
languages can't easily deal with even after you wipe off the glue.

>The original PDP-11 Unixes had grossly non-C system-call conventions and
>worked fine despite a C compiler that never supported "asm" at all.

I know. I did a port of John James' PDP11 FIG-Forth to Version 7. But, once
again, you get the glue with the kit.

>Mars must wait -- we have un-         Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
>finished business on the Moon.     {allegra,ihnp4,decvax,pyramid}!utzoo!henry

Have you ever heard Hope Eyrie?
-- 
-- Peter da Silva `-_-' ...!seismo!soma!uhnix1!sugar!peter (I said, NO PHOTOS!)