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Programming Languages: Tevfik Koşar

This document provides an overview of programming language concepts including subroutines, parameter passing, exception handling, and coroutines. It discusses allocation strategies for code, variables, and constants. It also reviews stack layout, calling sequences, and how different languages implement parameter passing by value, reference, and name. Finally, it defines exceptions and exception handling, and coroutines as concurrent execution contexts that explicitly transfer control to each other.

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Anthony Begoli
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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
88 views12 pages

Programming Languages: Tevfik Koşar

This document provides an overview of programming language concepts including subroutines, parameter passing, exception handling, and coroutines. It discusses allocation strategies for code, variables, and constants. It also reviews stack layout, calling sequences, and how different languages implement parameter passing by value, reference, and name. Finally, it defines exceptions and exception handling, and coroutines as concurrent execution contexts that explicitly transfer control to each other.

Uploaded by

Anthony Begoli
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Programming Languages

Tevfik Koşar

Lecture - XX
April 4th, 2006

Roadmap

• Subroutines
– Allocation Strategies
– Calling Sequences
– Parameter Passing
– Generic Subroutines
– Exception Handling
– Co-routines

1
Review Of Stack Layout

• Allocation strategies
– Static
• Code
• Globals
• Own variables
• Explicit constants (including strings, sets, other aggregates)
• Small scalars may be stored in the instructions themselves

Review Of Stack Layout

2
Review Of Stack Layout

• Allocation strategies (2)


– Stack
• parameters
• local variables
• temporaries
• bookkeeping information
– Heap
• dynamic allocation

Review Of Stack Layout

• Contents of a stack frame


– bookkeeping
• return PC (dynamic link)
• saved registers
• line number
• saved display entries
• static link
– arguments and returns
– local variables
– temporaries

3
Calling Sequences

• Maintenance of stack is responsibility of calling


sequence and subroutine prolog and epilog
– space is saved by putting as much in the prolog and
epilog as possible
– time may be saved by putting stuff in the caller
instead, where more information may be known
• e.g., there may be fewer registers IN USE at the point of
call than are used SOMEWHERE in the callee

Calling Sequences
• Common strategy is to divide registers into
caller-saves and callee-saves sets
– caller uses the "callee-saves" registers first
– "caller-saves" registers if necessary
• Local variables and arguments are assigned
fixed OFFSETS from the stack pointer or
frame pointer at compile time
– some storage layouts use a separate arguments
pointer
– the VAX architecture encouraged this

4
Calling Sequences

Calling Sequences (C on MIPS)


• Caller
– saves into the temporaries and locals area any
caller-saves registers whose values will be needed
after the call
– puts up to 4 small arguments into registers $4-$7
(a0-a3)
• it depends on the types of the parameters and the order in
which they appear in the argument list
– puts the rest of the arguments into the arg build
area at the top of the stack frame
– does jal, which puts return address into register ra
and branches
• note that jal, like all branches, has a delay slot

10

5
Calling Sequences (C on MIPS)

• In prolog, Callee
– subtracts framesize from sp
– saves callee-saves registers used anywhere inside
callee
– copies sp to fp
• In epilog, Callee
– puts return value into registers (mem if large)
– copies fp into sp (see below for rationale)
– restores saved registers using sp as base
– adds to sp to deallocate frame
– does jra

11

Calling Sequences (C on MIPS)

• After call, Caller


– moves return value from register to wherever it's
needed (if appropriate)
– restores caller-saves registers lazily over time, as
their values are needed
• All arguments have space in the stack, whether
passed in registers or not
• The subroutine just begins with some of the
arguments already cached in registers, and
'stale' values in memory

12

6
Calling Sequences (C on MIPS)

• This is a normal state of affairs; optimizing


compilers keep things in registers whenever
possible, flushing to memory only when they
run out of registers, or when code may attempt
to access the data through a pointer or from an
inner scope

13

Calling Sequences (C on MIPS)

• Many parts of the calling sequence, prologue,


and/or epilogue can be omitted in common
cases
– particularly LEAF routines (those that don't call
other routines)
• leaving things out saves time
• simple leaf routines don't use the stack - don't even use
memory – and are exceptionally fast

14

7
Parameter Passing

• Parameter passing mechanisms have three basic


implementations
– value
– value/result (copying)
– reference (aliasing)
– closure/name
• Many languages (e.g., Pascal) provide value and
reference directly

15

Parameter Passing

• C/C++: functions
– parameters passed by value (C)
– parameters passed by reference can be simulated
with pointers (C)
void proc(int* x,int y){*x = *x+y } …
proc(&a,b);
– or directly passed by reference (C++)
void proc(int& x, int y) {x = x + y }
proc(a,b);

16

8
Parameter Passing

• Ada goes for semantics: who can do what


– In: callee reads only
– Out: callee writes and can then read (formal not
initialized); actual modified
– In out: callee reads and writes; actual modified
• Ada in/out is always implemented as
– value/result for scalars, and either
– value/result or reference for structured objects

17

Parameter Passing
• In a language with a reference model of
variables (Lisp, Clu), pass by reference
(sharing) is the obvious approach
• It's also the only option in Fortran
• If you pass a constant, the compiler creates a
temporary location to hold it
• If you modify the temporary, who cares?
• Call-by name is an old Algol technique
• Think of it as call by textual substitution (procedure
with all name parameters works like macro) - what
you pass are hidden procedures called THUNKS

18

9
Parameter Passing

19

Generic Subroutines and Modules

• Generic modules or classes are particularly


valuable for creating containers: data
abstractions that hold a collection of objects
• Generic subroutines (methods) are needed in
generic modules (classes), and may also be
useful in their own right

20

10
Exception Handling

• What is an exception?
– a hardware-detected run-time error or
unusual condition detected by software
• Examples
– arithmetic overflow
– end-of-file on input
– wrong type for input data
– user-defined conditions, not necessarily
errors

21

Exception Handling
• What is an exception handler?
– code executed when exception occurs
– may need a different handler for each type of
exception
• Why design in exception handling facilities?
– allow user to explicitly handle errors in a uniform
manner
– allow user to handle errors without having to check
these conditions
– explicitly in the program everywhere they might
occur

22

11
Coroutines
• Coroutines are execution contexts that exist
concurrently, but that execute one at a time,
and that transfer control to each other
explicitly, by name
• Coroutines can be used to implement
– iterators (Section 6.5.3)
– threads (to be discussed in Chapter 12)
• Because they are concurrent (i.e.,
simultaneously started but not completed),
coroutines cannot share a single stack

23

Coroutines

24

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