A Formal Model and Specification Language for
Procedure Calling Conventions
Mark W. Bailey
Jack W. Davidson
- Abstract
-
Procedure calling conventions are used to provide uniform
procedure-call interfaces. Applications, such as compilers and
debuggers, which generate, or process procedures at the
machine-language abstraction level require knowledge of the calling
convention. In this paper, we develop a formal model for procedure
calling conventions called P-FSA’s. Using this model, we are able
to ensure several completeness and consistency properties of calling
conventions. Currently, applications that manipulate procedures
implement conventions in an ad-hoc manner. The resulting code is
complicated with details, difficult to maintain, and often riddled
with errors. To alleviate the situation, we introduce a calling
convention specification language, called CCL. The combination of CCL
and P-FSA’s facilitates the accurate specification of conventions
that can be shown to be both consistent and complete.
Maintained by Mark Bailey
(bailey@virginia.edu)
Last modified: Sat Jan 11 13:37:21 1997