__builtin_apply/sparc.md problem on SPARC-Solaris ?

[Ovidiu Predescu]

On Wed, 21 Oct 1998 23:18:05 -0700, Richard Henderson <rth@cygnus.com> wrote:

> On Tue, Oct 20, 1998 at 12:50:42PM +0200, Helge Hess wrote:
> > I had problems using the objc_msg_sendv() function from the Objective-C
> > runtime. Since the function relies on __builtin_apply() I wonder whether
> > something is wrong with this in egcs-SPARC and whether such a problem is
> > known.
> 
> Very well known.  __builtin_apply will not work on any machine
> that doesn't simply push arguments on the stack.

It does actually work on RISC machines and it used to work on Sparc/Solaris.
All the registers are saved and restored in and from a buffer by the
__builtin_apply/restore functions, so it should work even if the arguments are
passed on registers. Conceptually the idea seems to be good, I never understood
why you're saying it's not good.

> The extention is an abomination and should be removed.

I would also like to replace it with something else but I don't know of a
dynamic function invocation library that could be released together with EGCS,
so that we don't introduce unnecessary dependencies for the Objective-C runtime
library.

Ovidiu