Limitations
It is not always possible to inline a subroutine. Consider the case of a subroutine that calls itself recursively until it receives a particular piece of input data from a peripheral. The compiler cannot generally determine when this process will end, so it would never finish inlining if it was designed to inline every single subroutine invocation. Thus, compilers for languages which support recursion must have restrictions on what they will automatically choose to inline.
Read more about this topic: Inline Expansion
Famous quotes containing the word limitations:
“... art transcends its limitations only by staying within them.”
—Flannery O’Connor (1925–1964)
“The limitations of pleasure cannot be overcome by more pleasure.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“That all may be so, but when I begin to exercise that power I am not conscious of the power, but only of the limitations imposed on me.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)