Module 6: Run-time Environments

No. of lectures : 5

Topics Covered

1. Basic Concepts and Issues
2. Activation Records
3. Parameter Passing
4. Compiling Procedure Calls
5. Handling Dynamic Data Structures
6. Conclusion

Objectives At the conclusion of the module, the student should be able to :

1. Understand the need for runtime storage management and see the issues involved in terms of source language features.

2. Understand the concept of an environment.

3. Understand the reason for broadly classifying the available memory into code, data, stack and heap.

4. Understand the notion of an activation record and the factors which influence its contents.

5. Understand why static allocation suffices for some languages, whereas others need stack allocation.

6. Understand the issues involved in handling different parameter passing mechanisms.

7. Understand memory allocation techniques for dynamic data structures.