In some systems, the stack grows in upward direction whereas the heap grows in downward direction and in some systems, the stack grows in downward direction and the heap grows in upward direction. But, Which is the best design ? Are there any programming advantages for any of those two specific designs ? Which is most commonly used and why has it not been standardized to follow a single approach ? Are they helpful/targeted for certain specific scenarios. If yes, what are they ?
A:
I have read the works of Miro Samek and various other embedded gurus and It seems that they are not in favor of dynamic allocation on embedded systems. That is probably due to complexity and the potential for memory leaks. If you have a project that absolutely can't fail, you will probably want to avoid using Malloc thus the heap will be small. Other non mission critical systems could be just the opposite. I don't think there would be a standard approach.
ValiRossi
2010-07-30 18:59:55
A:
Maybe it is just dependent on the processor: If it supports the stack going upward or downward?
Frank
2010-07-30 19:00:16
+1
A:
Heaps only "grow" in a direction in very naive implementations. As Paul R. mentions, the direction a stack grows is defined by the hardware - on Intel CPUs, it always goes toward smaller addresses "i.e. 'Up'"
Paul Betts
2010-07-30 19:00:38