abi
How do I safely pass objects, especially STL objects, to and from a DLL?
The short answer to this question is don’t. Because there’s no standard C++ ABI (application binary interface, a standard for calling conventions, data packing/alignment, type size, etc.), you will have to jump through a lot of hoops to try and enforce a standard way of dealing with class objects in your program. There’s not even … Read more
What is an application binary interface (ABI)?
One easy way to understand “ABI” is to compare it to “API”. You are already familiar with the concept of an API. If you want to use the features of, say, some library or your OS, you will program against an API. The API consists of data types/structures, constants, functions, etc that you can use … Read more
What are callee and caller saved registers?
Caller-saved registers (AKA volatile registers, or call-clobbered) are used to hold temporary quantities that need not be preserved across calls. For that reason, it is the caller’s responsibility to push these registers onto the stack or copy them somewhere else if it wants to restore this value after a procedure call. It’s normal to let … Read more