It is argued that despite the simplified instruction sets of reduced instruction-set computers (RISCs), designing their compilers is not so simple. This viewpoint is substantiated by considering a subproblem that arises in designing a calling sequence, namely, how to pass arguments to a procedure. A constraint of the solution is that the ubiquitous print function printf (from the C programming language) has to work. The problem (called the variable-arguments, or varargs, problem) is defined, and solutions are shown for complex-instruction-set computers (CISCs) and two RISCs, the IBM RT PC and the Intel i860.
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