Re: alloca for MSDOS

Article View: comp.os.msdos.programmer

Article #3177

Back to comp.os.msdos.programmer Previous Next

#3177

From: Ran Atkinson
Date: Tue, 27 Nov 1990 15:24

18 lines
1549 bytes

The alloca() function is not defined by ANSI C and is inherently non-portable
and potentially dangerous.  It cannot be implemented on some architectures 
and on others can only be implemented in a manner that is inefficient.  
It is unwise to use alloca() ever.  In the case of BISON, one would be 
better off to have it use variables off the stack or from malloc()/free() 
instead.  Such modifications have been done to BISON in the past 
with great success.

See the recent (recurring) discussion in comp.lang.c for details on why
one should avoid alloca() and pay particular attention to the postings 
by Chris Torek and Doug Gwyn.

( One wonders why yet another person is porting BISON to MSDOS when it was
  already successfully ported once and is available from the sources archives
  near you and from places like SIMTEL-20 in both source and binary form. )

Ran
randall@Virginia.EDU

Technical Details

Message-ID: <1990Nov27.152458.23920@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU>

Path:

arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!usc!rutgers!mcnc!uvaarpa!murdoch!news

References: <0093FFFD.51B399C0@router.jhuapl.edu> <11798@spool.cs.wisc.edu> <1292@digi.lonestar.org> <1739@umriscc.isc.umr.edu>

Show Full Headers

Complete Article Headers

Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!usc!rutgers!mcnc!uvaarpa!murdoch!news
From: randall@Virginia.EDU (Ran Atkinson)
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.programmer
Subject: Re: alloca for MSDOS
Keywords: alloca, bison, where
Message-ID: <1990Nov27.152458.23920@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU>
Date: 27 Nov 90 15:24:58 GMT
References: <0093FFFD.51B399C0@router.jhuapl.edu> <11798@spool.cs.wisc.edu> <1292@digi.lonestar.org> <1739@umriscc.isc.umr.edu>
Sender: news@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU
Reply-To: Ran Atkinson <randall@Virginia.EDU>
Followup-To: comp.lang.c
Organization: University of Virginia
Lines: 18

Reply to Parent Message