void * (was Re: malloc())

[Henry Spencer]

> > Also, it's a misnomer; it has nothing to do with "void".
> 
> I presume the reason why "void *" was chosen is, as stated above, that a
> pointer of type "void *" would, when dereferenced, yield an object of type
> "void", and as such dereferencing a "void *" would be illegal...

I believe a contributing reason was the desire to avoid introducing new
keywords.  (Yes, I know, X3J11 has managed to introduce a few; it remains
true that there is a preference for avoiding it.)  Every new keyword is
bound to break some existing programs.
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