Functions Returning Values of Dynamic Size

Dartmouth Technical Report PCS-TR86-125

	Mark Sherman
	Andy Hisgen
	Jonathan Rosenberg
	David Alex Lamb

Date:  1986

URL (PDF): <http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/reports/TR86-125.pdf> (660KB)

Abstract:
 	Modern programming languages, such as Ada (Ichbiah 80), permit
 the definition of functions that return values whose size can not be
 determined until the function returns.  This paper discusses five
 implementation techniques that can be used to implement this
 capability.  Comparisons of the techniques are provided and guidelines
 for selecting a particular technique for a compiler are given.