hi,

Before we start grinding through MSIL instructions, I need to introduce a little bit about how the CLR works because it is essentially the CPU for the instructions. Where traditional CPUs rely on registers and stacks to do everything, the CLR uses only a stack. That means that to add two numbers, load both numbers onto the stack and call an instruction to add them. The instruction will remove the two numbers from the stack and put the result on top of the stack. If you are like me, it sometimes helps to see the actual implementation. The CLR evaluation stack can hold any type of value in the stack slots. Copying values from memory to the stack is referred to as loading, while copying items from the stack to memory is referred to as storing. Unlike the Intel CPU, the CLR stack does not hold the locals, but the locals are in memory. The stacks are local to the method doing the work and the CLR saves them across method invocations. Finally, the stack is also where method return values are placed. Now that I've covered just enough about how the CLR works.


thnx....