Thread: Virtual function and multiple inheritance

Interesting, Mats!


What topics do you expect the so-called ABI manual for Windows to have?

Originally Posted by matsp

I expect that not to be the case - the executable format has very little to do with the calling convention - it may state that standard DLL's should use stdcall calling convention, but if you really want to you can create a DLL that uses fastcall, cdecl or thiscall calling convention - or any mixture of all four. The PECOFF manual describes how to relocate an executable file, how to find symbols in it, etc, etc, but not how to use assembler code - that is not part of the PECOFF format itself.

The fact that the executable contains functions is for most purposes irrelevant (and in fact, the executable may only contain one function that never calls any other function).

I have a feeling that Microsoft doesn't have a ABI specification. A quick search doesn't find anything at all.

--
Mats

regards,
George

Thanks matsp and Elysia,


I have got your ideas. Seems there is no open document (including some internal documents on Microsoft System Journal) covers the details in calling convention?

Originally Posted by Elysia

To put it simply, calling convention is a set of rules of how arguments are passed, on the stack or in some registers, in what order the arguments are passed, which function cleans the stack, etc.
MS uses 4 of them: __cdecl, __stdcall, __fastcall and __thiscall.

regards,
George

Thanks Elysia,


What I mean is the binary (assembly language level) description of calling convention.

Originally Posted by Elysia

No, for calling conventions there is. Mats posted a link:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/lib...ks(VS.71).aspx

For ABI, there probably isn't.

regards,
George

Thanks for your patience help on this thread, Mats!

Originally Posted by matsp

It is described in the link - what else do you think EAX, ECX, EDX etc refers to, if not assembler instructions.

If you don't understand how to interpret the calling conventions, perhaps you should study assembler programming in general for a little bit.

--
Mats

regards,
George