question about _stdcall

[bugs]

I am learing MFC.
Here comes a question about _stdcall in MFC RTTI structure.

#define PASCAL _stdcall

struct CRuntimeClass
{
...
...
CObject* (PASCAL* m_pCreateObject) ();
};

I have couple quesitons:
1. Why it's PASCAL _stdcall, not BASIC _stdcall,FORTRAN _stdcall?
2. what is _stdcall, I try to understand this in MSDN...but..I don't really get it.
3. How to read "CObject* (PASCAL* m_pCreateObject) ();" ? a function named m_pCreateObject that returns a _stdcall type pointer retures a CObject type pointer?


thanks

[helios]

1. Because the calling convention was inherited from Pascal. I think.
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86_calling_conventions#stdcall
3. CRuntimeClass::m_pCreateObject is a pointer to a function that takes nothing, returns a pointer to a CObject, and uses the stdcall calling convention.

[bugs]

Thanks! It helps a lot.