[wahern]

> The distinction of stack vs heap objects is an old distinction that is deeply encoded in the semantics of C. It's not obvious that's the right choice.

Nothing about C requires a contiguous stack, and there are perfectly standard C environments where the stack isn't contiguous, where call frames are allocated dynamically and managed (singularly or in groups) as a linked-list, e.g. some mainframe environments, gcc's segmented stacks, etc. C's automatic ("stack") variables are defined in terms of their lifetime, which is basically lexical.

[naasking]

I don't think the OP assumed that stacks were contiguous. The main distinction from the heap is that stack management is automatic in C.