[fpc-devel] Proposal/discussion: Simple nested functions and 'outlining'

[Martin Frb]

On 01/10/2020 23:22, J. Gareth Moreton via fpc-devel wrote:
> In a way, yes, but not quite the same, since multiple calls to the 
> nested function would still redirect to the same block of code rather 
> than being inlined at each call.  I suppose more similar to the old 
> GOSUB; RETURN combination in old versions of Basic, and the nested 
> routine slotted either at the end of the parent function or, if the 
> compiler is intelligent enough, right after one of the function calls 
> (in effect, inlining it at this point) so the peephole optimizer can 
> then remove a zero-distance jump.

And how to you get back?

When you talk of jump instead of call, I imagine something like:
nop
nop
jmp + 0 // to nested
mov // in nested
jmp ??? // back to outer
nop  // continue outer
nop
jmp -5 // to nested
nop // continue outer

What is the advantage over "call"?

----
Maybe the following (not sure if beneficial) goes into the same direction

If a "nested proc" (which can have its own locals, and params) does NOT 
recurse, then instead of generating a separate stack frame (enter/leave) 
space for the locals could be allocated at the end of the outer 
function. That means that the basepointer (rbp) can be kept as it is. 
And that also means, that the framepointer for the outer (access to 
outer variables) does not need to be passed, as it is the basepointer.
(This kind of extends the recent "do not pass the outer-fp", if there is 
no access to outer vars, only this time outer vars may be accessed.)