module Virtual # A Message and a Frame make up the two sides of message passing: # A Message (see details there) is created by the sender and control is transferred # A Frame is created by the receiver # In static languages these two objects are one, because the method is known at compile time. # In that case the whole frame is usually on the stack, for leaves even omitted and all data is held in registers # # In a dynamic language the method is dynamically resolved, and so the size of the frame is not know to the caller # Also exceptions (with the possibility of retry) and the idea of being able to take and store bindings # make it to say the very least unsensibly tricky to store them on the stack. So we don't. # Also at runtime Messages and frames remain completely "normal" objects class Frame def initialize variables @variables = variables end attr_accessor :variables end end