Lab Review 2

Front

What is a stack in programming?

Back

A stack is a data structure that follows the Last In First Out (LIFO) principle, where the last element added is the first one to be removed.

Front

What is the purpose of using a stack?

Back

Stacks are used to save and restore registers, allow for recursive subroutine calls, and allocate space for local variables.

Front

What is the difference between stack and heap memory allocation?

Back

Stack memory is managed automatically and has a fixed size, while heap memory is managed manually and can grow dynamically.

Front

What does 'contiguously allocated' mean in the context of stack frames?

Back

It means that the variables in a stack frame are stored in consecutive memory addresses.

Front

What is a frame pointer?

Back

A frame pointer is a register that points to the start of the current stack frame, allowing access to local variables and function parameters.

Front

What is the significance of saving registers in a callee function?

Back

Saving registers ensures that the values in those registers are preserved across function calls, allowing the caller to resume execution correctly.

Front

What is the correct order of stack teardown?

Back

Callee: save return value, restore registers, restore R5 & R7, RET; Caller: pop return value, pop arguments.

Front

What is a symbol table in programming?

Back

A symbol table is a data structure used by a compiler to store information about variables, functions, and other identifiers in a program.

Front

What is a return value in the context of function calls?

Back

A return value is the output that a function provides back to the caller after execution.

Front

What is recursion in programming?

Back

Recursion is a technique where a function calls itself to solve a problem, typically breaking it down into smaller subproblems.