### A good answer might be:

No.

# Nested Subroutine Calls

The diagram at right shows the main routine linking to subroutine A, which links to subroutine B, which links to subroutine C. The subroutines link together like beads on a double string. Control is passed from the call to prolog, and from epilog to return. All but the subroutine at the bottom of a calling chain has all five sections (call, prolog, body, epilog, and return).

Each time another subroutine is added to the chain, more data is pushed onto the run-time stack. At the end of the chain of calls the run-time stack has a section of data (saved register values) from each of the subroutines (including main). The currently active subroutine is the one whose data is at the top of the stack (subroutine C, in our upside-down stack).

As each subroutine returns to its caller, its section of data is popped from the stack.

A subroutine does not "know" anything about the stack other than its section. It pushes its data onto the stack, and later on pops exactly that data back into registers. It does not look at any other data in the stack. It does not even know how deep the stack is.

Sometimes instead of saying "calling a subroutine" people say "activating a subroutine." Each bead in the picture and each section of the stack corresponds to one subroutine activation.

### QUESTION 8:

After subroutine B returns control to subroutine A, might subroutine A call another subroutine (say subroutine X)?