In computer engineering and in programming language implementations, a stack machine is a real or emulated computer that uses a pushdown stack rather than individual machine registers to evaluate each sub-expression in the program. A stack computer is programmed with a reverse Polish notation instruction set.
The common alternative to stack machines are register machines, in which each instruction explicitly names the specific registers to use for operand and result values.
Read more about Stack Machine: Practical Expression-Stack Machines, Computers Using Call Stacks and Stack Frames
Famous quotes containing the words stack and/or machine:
“What is a farm but a mute gospel? The chaff and the wheat, weeds and plants, blight, rain, insects, sun—it is a sacred emblem from the first furrow of spring to the last stack which the snow of winter overtakes in the fields.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“There is no question but that if Jesus Christ, or a great prophet from another religion, were to come back today, he would find it virtually impossible to convince anyone of his credentials ... despite the fact that the vast evangelical machine on American television is predicated on His imminent return among us sinners.”
—Peter Ustinov (b. 1921)