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Operating system kernels could return multiple values from system calls (utcc.utoronto.ca)
14 points by ingve 6 days ago | hide | past | favorite | 2 comments





Operating system kernels did return multiple values from system calls, even the article says so:

>Using multiple CPU registers for system call return values was even used by Research Unix on the PDP-11, for certain system calls.

Or MS-DOS, which also set the carry flag to indicate errors, as was a common convention in assembly language. Very convenient, since a single conditional jump to return can pass it back up the call chain.

C and modern Unixoid systems are why we can't have nice things.


I mean... of course they can? It's just software.



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