_why_ does the UNIX linker not distinguish text and data addresses???

[Doug Gwyn]

In article <1990Jul30.104726.22660 at mtcchi.uucp> levy at mtcchi.UUCP (Daniel R. Levy) writes:
>Now my question is, why does the linker silently resolve the function reference
>to the global variable without even a whisper of a warning?

The original UNIX linker "ld", written I think by Dennis Ritchie,
was remarkably simple compared to typical system linkers.  This
has since been fixed in UNIX System V COFF-based systems.

>Yes I know this is a stupid thing to do, I'm just asking hypothetically.

UNIX was never designed to keep people from doing stupid things,
because that policy would also keep them from doing clever things.