Method signature Vs function prototype

Posted by Maroloccio on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by Maroloccio
Published on 2010-04-08T22:14:08Z Indexed on 2010/04/08 22:23 UTC
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A formal definition of the two?

Current Wiki articles denote their different contexts and applications, such as internal type signature "strings" in Java VMs (1) and C/C++ function prototypes informing compilers of upcoming method definitions (2) but...

1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_signature 2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Function_prototype

... where to look for a definition which clearly and formally distinguished one from the other?

There is literature using the words prototype and signature almost interchangeably yet other uses appear strict and consistent, if language-specific.

Background: I am writing documentation for a sample compiler written for a University project.

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