[Info-vax] BASIC and AST routines

[Arne Vajhøj]

On 11/23/2021 1:37 PM, Simon Clubley wrote:
> On 2021-11-22, VAXman-  @SendSpamHere.ORG <VAXman- at SendSpamHere.ORG> wrote:
>> In article <sngp1p$aud$2 at dont-email.me>, Simon Clubley <clubley at remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP> writes:
>>> On 2021-11-19, Dave Froble <davef at tsoft-inc.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> I'm going to confess to curiosity.  Why are R0, R1, SP, and PC passed to an AST
>>>> routine?
>>>>
>>>
>>> Because it's another example of VMS functionality being implemented
>>> at way too low an abstraction level because of the need to support
>>> Macro-32 as an application programming language.
>>
>> BULLSHIT!  If you believe that's true, please provide an illustrating example.
>> I'll be waiting...
> 
> That VMS API passes in a stack pointer, a PC and what were originally
> two architecture-specific registers.
> 
> That kind of information simply would not be exposed at application
> code level in a modern version of that API as it would (rightly) be
> treated as an implementation specific detail that would be handled
> by the compiler.
> 
> That information is only needed because the lowest supported application
> language on VMS is Macro-32 and not C (or another comparable low-level
> language).

What does the Macro-32 application developers need those
arguments for that the C application developers does not need
them for?

Arne