NULL again
Chip Salzenberg
chip at ateng.ateng.com
Wed Oct 5 02:24:15 AEST 1988
Gads, not another NULL argument.
According to davidsen at steinmetz.ge.com (William E. Davidsen Jr):
>| The computer's internal representation of a null pointer may not
>| be the same as the internal representation of the integer 0.
>
> Just not true in the real world. There are hundreds of programs
>written by "all the world's a VAX" types who use NULL as a pointer
>(uncast) in procedure calls.
That's true but irrelevant. THOSE PROGRAMS ARE NOT PORTABLE. After all,
bitwise representation is not the only issue. Sometimes pointers are
_larger_ than ints!
Please write this saying at the top of your terminal:
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Always cast the NULL pointer when it is used as a function parameter. |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
Followups to /dev/null, since that's where counter{flames,arguments} belong.
--
Chip Salzenberg <chip at ateng.com> or <uunet!ateng!chip>
A T Engineering Me? Speak for my company? Surely you jest!
Beware of programmers carrying screwdrivers.
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