Editing Stack-oriented programming (section)

{{Short description|Programming paradigm that relies on a stack machine model}}
{{redirects here|Stack-based|other uses|Stack-based memory allocation}}
{{multiple issues|{{Refimprove|date=December 2009}}
{{Rewrite lead|reason=Reflect the new title without "language"|date=June 2018}}
{{tone|date=March 2019}}}}

'''Stack-oriented programming''' is a [[programming paradigm]] that relies on one or more [[stack machine|stacks]] to manipulate [[data]] and/or pass parameters. Programming constructs in other programming languages need to be modified for use in a stack-oriented system.<ref>Luerweg, T. (2015). Stack based programming paradigms. Concepts of Programming Languages–CoPL’15, 33.</ref> Most stack-oriented languages operate in ''postfix'' or [[Reverse Polish notation]]: arguments or parameters for a command are listed before that command. For example, postfix notation would be written {{nowrap|<code>2, 3, multiply</code>}} instead of {{nowrap|<code>multiply, 2, 3</code>}} (''prefix'' or [[Polish notation]]), or {{nowrap|<code>2 multiply 3</code>}} ([[infix notation|''infix'' notation]]). The programming languages [[Forth (programming language)|Forth]], [[Factor (programming language)|Factor]], [[RPL (programming language)|RPL]], [[PostScript]], [[BibTeX]] style design language<ref>{{citation|author=Oren Patashnik |title=Designing BibTeX styles |url=http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/info/biblio/bibtex/contrib/doc/btxhak.pdf}}{{dead link|date=April 2019}}</ref> and many [[assembly language]]s fit this paradigm.

Stack-based algorithms manipulate data by popping data from and pushing data to the stack. Operators govern how the stack manipulates [[data]]. To emphasize the effect of a statement, a comment is often used showing the top of the stack before and after the statement; this is known as the stack effect diagram. Some stack-oriented languages may use multiple stacks for different purposes; for example, PostScript uses separate stacks for variables, dictionaries, procedures, some typical procedures, and control flow statements. Analysis of the [[language model]] allows expressions and programs to be interpreted simply.