register dancing

2 definitions found

register dancing - Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (26 May 2007) :

  register dancing
  
     Many older processor architectures suffer from a serious
     shortage of general-purpose registers.  This is especially a
     problem for compiler-writers, because their generated code
     needs places to store temporaries for things like intermediate
     values in expression evaluation.  Some designs with this
     problem, like the Intel 80x86, do have a handful of
     special-purpose registers that can be pressed into service,
     providing suitable care is taken to avoid unpleasant side
     effects on the state of the processor: while the
     special-purpose register is being used to hold an intermediate
     value, a delicate minuet is required in which the previous
     value of the register is saved and then restored just before
     the official function (and value) of the special-purpose
     register is again needed.
  
     [Jargon File]
  

register dancing - Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003) :

  register dancing
   n.
  
     Many older processor architectures suffer from a serious shortage of
     general-purpose registers. This is especially a problem for
     compiler-writers, because their generated code needs places to store
     temporaries for things like intermediate values in expression
     evaluation. Some designs with this problem, like the Intel 80x86, do
     have a handful of special-purpose registers that can be pressed into
     service, providing suitable care is taken to avoid unpleasant side
     effects on the state of the processor: while the special-purpose
     register is being used to hold an intermediate value, a delicate
     minuet is required in which the previous value of the register is
     saved and then restored just before the official function (and value)
     of the special-purpose register is again needed.