initializing null pointers

[guy at gorodish.UUCP]

>> The most portable thing to do is NEVER dereference a pointer that has not
>> been initialized.  Some micro compilers I've used don't even initialize
>> automatics!
>
>I would suspect that any optiomizing compiler would try to avoid
>initializing automatics--they're not required to, and it takes time.

I have yet to see a C compiler that initializes *any* automatics
except those it was told to.  (If it doesn't initialize them, well,
all together now, "It's not a C compiler.")  You *may* get automatics
initialized to a bit pattern of all zeroes (not necessarily to 0,
please note) in a UNIX implementation if the area being used for the
activation record has never been used before; however, this is NOT
behavior to be relied on!