The compiler can make up its own calling conventions, within limits--Raymond Chen
A new article from the Old New Thing:
The compiler can make up its own calling conventions, within limits
by Raymond Chen
From the article:
There are three parties to a calling convention. The function doing the calling. The function being called. The operating system. The operating system needs to get involved if something unusual occurs, like an exception, and it needs to go walking up the stack looking for a handler...

Christophe Riccio gives us an interesting point of view for a library author and shares the latest status of some compilers:
While we wait for CppCon 2015 in September, we’re featuring videos of some of the 100+ talks from CppCon 2014. Here is today’s feature: