problems using sizeof()

[joe at modcomp.UUCP]

Jeff Siegal (jbs @ fenchurch.mit.edu.UUCP) writes:

>In article <8553 at ihlpb.ATT.COM> nevin1 at ihlpb.UUCP (55528-Liber,N.J.) writes:
> >[...]the more general problem of determining the size of an array which is
> >passed via a pointer cannot be done in C.
>
>Nor in any other language, [...] You can't tell the size of an object from a
>pointer to it.

Not true for Fortran 77.  The semantics of the language require that the size
of a character string argument also be passed to a procedure.  The construct
which requires this feature is:

	SUBROUTINE FOO(CA)
	CHARACTER*(*) CA
	 :
	END

The asterisk in parens forces CA to assume the size of the calling argument on
each instantiation of the procedure.

Joe Korty
uucp!modcomp!joe