death of nargs(3) (Was: sun-3 dbx, arguments, hacking, help...)

Andrew Klossner andrew at frip.gwd.tek.com
Wed Apr 27 01:05:59 AEST 1988


[]

	"This function used to be called nargs() and it was removed
	from PDP-11 UNIX when the PDP-11/70 came out, precisely because
	it became clear that programs that relied on it would have
	problems when ported to new machines."

Specifically, because it couldn't be implemented in a process with
separate I&D space, because there is no way (short of a system call)
for such a process to look at its own instructions.

  -=- Andrew Klossner   (decvax!tektronix!tekecs!andrew)       [UUCP]
                        (andrew%tekecs.tek.com at relay.cs.net)   [ARPA]



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