[Oberon] Question on ORG.SaveRegs / ORG.RestoreRegs in the FPGA Oberon compiler

[Paul Reed]

Hi Andreas,

>> Right. If the procedure variable was not actually loaded before the
>> parameters were evaluated (ie the procedure was not the result of an
>> expression), no registers needed to be saved, so the save is explicitly
>> avoided.
>
> I presume you mean this is how the compiler distinguishes between regular
>  procedures and function procedures (which are part of an expression)?

No.  It distinguishes that based on the type, not the mode.

I think we may have been talking at cross-purposes, I'm sorry if I've
confused things for you further.  I would not expect a student to grok
this even in an exercise, without a lot of help.

I think it's a good illustration of how a badly-placed comment might be
worse than no comment at all - some things are so intricate it's just
better to try to understand the code, since as Wirth says, that alone
contains the ultimate explanation.

Cheers,
Paul