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62<a name="Methods"></a>
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64<p>
65Next: <a href="Method-Type-Descriptor.html#Method-Type-Descriptor" accesskey="n" rel="next">Method Type Descriptor</a>, Previous: <a href="Class-Instance.html#Class-Instance" accesskey="p" rel="previous">Class Instance</a>, Up: <a href="Cplusplus.html#Cplusplus" accesskey="u" rel="up">Cplusplus</a> &nbsp; [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="Symbol-Types-Index.html#Symbol-Types-Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
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68<a name="Method-Definition"></a>
69<h3 class="section">8.6 Method Definition</h3>
70
71<p>The class definition shown above declares Ameth.  The C<tt>++</tt> source below
72defines Ameth:
73</p>
74<div class="example">
75<pre class="example">int
76baseA::Ameth(int in, char other)
77{
78        return in;
79};
80</pre></div>
81
82
83<p>This method definition yields three stabs following the code of the
84method.  One stab describes the method itself and following two describe
85its parameters.  Although there is only one formal argument all methods
86have an implicit argument which is the <code>this</code> pointer.  The <code>this</code>
87pointer is a pointer to the object on which the method was called.  Note
88that the method name is mangled to encode the class name and argument
89types.  Name mangling is described in the <small>ARM</small> (<cite>The Annotated
90C++ Reference Manual</cite>, by Ellis and Stroustrup, <small>ISBN</small>
910-201-51459-1); <samp>gpcompare.texi</samp> in Cygnus GCC distributions
92describes the differences between GNU mangling and <small>ARM</small>
93mangling.
94</p>
95<div class="example">
96<pre class="example">.stabs &quot;name:symbol_descriptor(global function)return_type(int)&quot;,
97        N_FUN, NIL, NIL, code_addr_of_method_start
98
99.stabs &quot;Ameth__5baseAic:F1&quot;,36,0,0,_Ameth__5baseAic
100</pre></div>
101
102<p>Here is the stab for the <code>this</code> pointer implicit argument.  The
103name of the <code>this</code> pointer is always <code>this</code>.  Type 19, the
104<code>this</code> pointer is defined as a pointer to type 20, <code>baseA</code>,
105but a stab defining <code>baseA</code> has not yet been emitted.  Since the
106compiler knows it will be emitted shortly, here it just outputs a cross
107reference to the undefined symbol, by prefixing the symbol name with
108&lsquo;<samp>xs</samp>&rsquo;.
109</p>
110<div class="example">
111<pre class="example">.stabs &quot;name:sym_desc(register param)type_def(19)=
112        type_desc(ptr to)type_ref(baseA)=
113        type_desc(cross-reference to)baseA:&quot;,N_RSYM,NIL,NIL,register_number
114
115.stabs &quot;this:P19=*20=xsbaseA:&quot;,64,0,0,8
116</pre></div>
117
118<p>The stab for the explicit integer argument looks just like a parameter
119to a C function.  The last field of the stab is the offset from the
120argument pointer, which in most systems is the same as the frame
121pointer.
122</p>
123<div class="example">
124<pre class="example">.stabs &quot;name:sym_desc(value parameter)type_ref(int)&quot;,
125        N_PSYM,NIL,NIL,offset_from_arg_ptr
126
127.stabs &quot;in:p1&quot;,160,0,0,72
128</pre></div>
129
130<p>&lt;&lt; The examples that follow are based on A1.C &gt;&gt;
131</p>
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