13 Dec
2001
13 Dec
'01
3:47 p.m.
It was thus said that the Great Mark Crispin once stated:
Contemporary programming languages, such as BASIC and FORTRAN, did not use
stack subroutines. It's possible that modern BASIC and FORTRAN compilers may
permit recursive subroutine calls, but doing so is still prohibited by the
language specification. Now you know why.
Stacks are very useful, but they are not the solution to everything. One of
the biggest deficiencies of C is its lack of co-routines, since it only has
the stack style of subroutine calling. Yeah, I know about setjmp/longjmp, but
those are one-way, not true co-routines.
Of course, talking about co-routines to youngsters is likely to get their eyes
to glaze over, since they won't have a clue as to what I'm talking about.
So what, exactly is a co-routine? I've heard the term before, but I'm not
entirely sure what they are, or how they would work.
-spc (I may have used them in assembly, but not knew the proper term ... )