<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ANSI_X3.4-1968"><title>Chapter 3. The interpreter</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="ecl.css" type="text/css"><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.75.2"><link rel="home" href="index.html" title="The ECL manual"><link rel="up" href="pt03.html" title="Part III. Internals"><link rel="prev" href="ch25s11.html" title="2.11. Bytecodes"><link rel="next" href="ch26s02.html" title="3.2. Procedure Call Conventions"></head><body bgcolor="white" text="black" link="#0000FF" vlink="#840084" alink="#0000FF"><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">Chapter 3. The interpreter</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="ch25s11.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">Part III. Internals</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="ch26s02.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr></div><div class="chapter" title="Chapter 3. The interpreter"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title"><a name="Internals-the-interpreter"></a>Chapter 3. The interpreter</h2></div></div></div><div class="toc"><dl><dt><span class="section"><a href="ch26.html#Internals-ECL-stacks">3.1. <span class="application">ECL</span> stacks</a></span></dt><dt><span class="section"><a href="ch26s02.html">3.2. Procedure Call Conventions</a></span></dt><dt><span class="section"><a href="ch26s03.html">3.3. The lexical environment</a></span></dt><dt><span class="section"><a href="ch26s04.html">3.4. The interpreter stack</a></span></dt></dl></div><div class="section" title="3.1. ECL stacks"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both"><a name="Internals-ECL-stacks"></a>3.1. <span class="application">ECL</span> stacks</h2></div></div></div><p><span class="application">ECL</span> uses the following stacks:</p><div class="variablelist"><table border="0"><col align="left" valign="top"><tbody><tr><td><p><span class="term">Frame Stack</span></p></td><td><p>consisting of catch, block, tagbody frames</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><span class="term">Bind Stack</span></p></td><td><p>for shallow binding of dynamic variables</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><span class="term">Interpreter Stack</span></p></td><td><p>acts as a Forth data stack, keeping intermediate arguments to
interpreted functions, plus a history of called functions.</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><span class="term">C Control Stack</span></p></td><td><p>used for arguments/values passing, typed lexical variables,
temporary values, and function invocation.</p></td></tr></tbody></table></div></div></div><div class="navfooter"><hr><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="ch25s11.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="pt03.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="ch26s02.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">2.11. Bytecodes </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> 3.2. Procedure Call Conventions</td></tr></table></div></body></html>
