c++ - Execute Instructions From The Heap

Question

Can I allocate a block on the heap, set its bytes to values that correspond to a function call and its parameters, then use the function call and dereference operators to execute that sequence?

Answer 1

Yes. How else could Dynamic loading and Linking work? Remembering that some (most?) Operating Systems, and some (most?) Linkers are also written in C/C++. For example,

#include <dlfcn.h>
void* initializer = dlsym(sdl_library,"SDL_Init");
if (initializer == NULL) {
    // report error ...
} else {
    // cast initializer to its proper type and use
}

Also, I believe that a JIT (e.g. GNU lightning and others) in general performs those operations.