Purely stack-based generators

[Andrei Alexandrescu]

On 03/18/2010 01:49 PM, Walter Bright wrote:
> Norbert Nemec wrote:
>> Regan Heath wrote:
>>> So, these generators are essentially inline functions?
>>
>> No. They may be inlined, but this is just an optimization just like
>> for regular functions. If they are not inlined, these generators are
>> simply functions with a special calling convention that allows them to
>> retain their local data and execution point on the stack in between
>> calls.
>>
>> I did work out the assembly code for this some time ago and it worked
>> nicely. Very similar to what is needed for co-routines, but it is
>> possible to do everything on the stack.
>
> How is that different from a local delegate that refers to local
> variables of the function it is lexically nested in?

I think the difference is that e.g. a coroutine can repeatedly return 
values from a loop. In contrast, the delegate must keep the state 
separate, which may be a tad more complicated.

Andrei