Path: utzoo!yunexus!geac!syntron!jtsv16!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!helios.ee.lbl.gov!pasteur!ames!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!mcnc!rti!xyzzy!meissner
From: meissner@xyzzy.UUCP (Michael Meissner)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: alloca (was Re: Are yacc parsers portable ?)
Message-ID: <1006@xyzzy.UUCP>
Date: 11 Aug 88 19:28:25 GMT
Article-I.D.: xyzzy.1006
References: <3950010@eecs.nwu.edu> <62170@sun.uucp> <62363@sun.uucp> <62412@sun.uucp>
Reply-To: meissner@tiktok.UUCP (Michael Meissner)
Organization: Data General (Languages @ Research Triangle Park, NC.)
Lines: 17

In article <62412@sun.uucp> swilson@sun.UUCP (Scott Wilson) writes:

| If alloca is such a wonderful function (and I'm NOT saying it isn't)
| then why isn't it part of the ANSI draft proposed standard libraries
| for C?  Are you saying that a "self-respecting" C compiler/library
| vendor will be doing users a disservice by providing only ANSI memory
| routines (malloc, calloc, realloc, and free)?  I would argue that it
| is better to conform to a standard even with its shortcomings than
| attempt to make something universal by "forcing" it on  everyone.

It was proposed to the ANSI committee, and it got shot down, for two reasons:
1) it was judged to be too late;  2) the systems don't have frame pointers
on their stacks would have to recognize it as a builtin and support it
through some method.
-- 
Michael Meissner, Data General.

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