Newsgroups: comp.lang.c Path: utzoo!henry From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) Subject: Re: What is alloca()? [Generated by bison from flex] Message-ID: <1989Sep25.172824.18692@utzoo.uucp> Organization: U of Toronto Zoology References: <3823.2518c141@uwovax.uwo.ca> <1989Sep24.050214.13898@utzoo.uucp> <6361@thor.acc.stolaf.edu> Date: Mon, 25 Sep 89 17:28:24 GMT In article <6361@thor.acc.stolaf.edu> mike@stolaf.edu (Mike Haertel) writes: >>>... What does alloca() do? >>It's a nonstandard botch (originating in some poorly-designed ancient Unix >>systems) that some of the Gnoids are really fond of... >I think alloca() originated in one of the early VAX BSD's. My guess >would be that it was invented for use implementing Franz Lisp... It goes back farther than that. The first occurrence I'm aware of was in PWB circa 1977. (PWB was a pdp11 Unix variant, sort of a neolithic ancestor of System V.) It showed up in SCCS (PWB's biggest, uh, contribution to the user interface) in particular. -- "Where is D.D. Harriman now, | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology when we really *need* him?" | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu