Stackless programming in Miller

Compilers generate from the procedure or function call instruction a code that builds up an ”activation record” into the stack memory in run time. At execution of this code the formal parameters, local variables, data of visibility and the scope are pushed into the activation record, and in this record there are fields for the return address and the return value as well. In case of intensive recursive calls this is the reason of the frequent occurrences of the stack-overflow error messages. The classical technique for fixing such stack-overflows is to write programs in stackless programming style using tail recursive calls; the method is usually realised by Continuation Passing Style. This paper describes this style and gives an introduction to the new, special purpose stackless programming language Miller, which provides methods to avoid stack-overflow errors.