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5.1.1 Stack-Based vs Register-Based ¶

Aspect	Stack-Based (fcvm)	Register-Based (e.g., Lua VM)
Storage	Operand stack (LIFO)	Virtual registers
Instructions	Compact, implicit operands, prone to errors	Explicit operand addressing
Complexity	Simple to implement	More complex logic
Bytecode Size	Bigger overall (smaller instructions but way more quantiry)	Smaller overall

We chose a stack-based approach for the following reasons:

1. Simpler bytecode generation: The compiler does not have to deal with registers, knowing it does not have the capacity to remember data while processing multiple operations.
2. Monotyped language: The fact that the Franc C is an integer only language allows for fixed-size parameter encoding. One of the main advantages of the register-based approach is to allow for type encoding.