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Phrase origin: Why do we "call" functions?

(quuxplusone.github.io)
173 points todsacerdoti | 1 comments | 09 Jul 25 04:04 UTC | HN request time: 0.199s | source
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lubosm ◴[09 Jul 25 05:39 UTC] No.44506640[source]▶
I'd like to point at CALL, a CPU instruction, and its origins. I'm not familiar with this, but it could reveal more than programming languages. The instruction is present at least since first intel microprocessors and microcontrollers were designed.
replies(3): >>44506670 #>>44506728 #>>44509840 #
1. aitchnyu ◴[09 Jul 25 05:57 UTC] No.44506728[source]▶
I kept scrolling expecting to see this story:

> Dennis Ritchie encouraged modularity by telling all and sundry that function calls were really, really cheap in C. Everybody started writing small functions and modularizing. Years later we found out that function calls were still expensive on the PDP-11, and VAX code was often spending 50% of its time in the CALLS instruction. Dennis had lied to us! But it was too late; we were all hooked...

https://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/taoup/html/modularitychap...