Stack Computers: the new wave © Copyright 1989, Philip Koopman, All Rights Reserved.

Chapter 7
Software Issues

Any computer system is worthless without software. Having hardware that effectively supports software requirements is of the utmost importance. Stack machines offer new tradeoffs and choices when considering software issues. Section 7.1 discusses the importance of fast subroutine calls, and how they can directly and indirectly affect not only program execution speed, but also software quality and programmer productivity.

Section 7.2 explains the choices and tradeoffs involved in choosing an appropriate language for programming stack machines, and how stack machines can support conventional languages efficiently.

Section 7.3 discusses the interfaces among all levels of a program written for a stack machine. The uniformity of software interface present in stack machines is not possible in register-based machines, and gives significant advantages.

• 7.1 THE IMPORTANCE OF FAST SUBROUTINE CALLS
  • 7.1.1 The importance of small procedures
  • 7.1.2 The proper size for a procedure
  • 7.1.3 Why programmers don't use small procedures
  • 7.1.4 Architectural support for procedures
• 7.2 LANGUAGE CHOICE
  • 7.2.1 Forth: strengths and weaknesses
  • 7.2.2 C and other conventional languages
  • 7.2.3 Rule-based systems and functional programming
• 7.3 UNIFORMITY OF SOFTWARE INTERFACES

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Phil Koopman -- koopman@cmu.edu