In a compiler recursion is typically used for walking Abstract Syntax Trees, and the recursion depth is usually similar to the scope nesting depth. I find it hard to believe that this could add up to megabytes for normal code.
MacCLint was a piece of work; I would be unsurprised were it to have local variables that were megabytes in size.
That is I don't know the depth of recursion but I do know that it blew out the 32 kB limit by megabytes.
MacCLint is also the reason why I always use explicit returns in C-like languages. It would crash - which on Mac OS System 7 would drop my box into MacsBug - if I just fell off the end of a void function.
Dave Johnson, the owner of Working Software, had already advised me to use explicit returns because he once used a compiler that generated incorrect machine code if he didn't do so.
Even without buggy tools explicit returns are handy for setting breakpoints. Some debuggers enable you to break just before return even if you fall off the end but not all do.
Isn't falling off a void function the same as returning from it?