Why NULL is 0

Richard Harter g-rh at cca.CCA.COM
Thu Mar 10 04:54:49 AEST 1988


Just a small addendum to Chris's excellent summary -- the current generation
of PR1ME C compilers use a 48 bit size for all pointers; but earlier versions
used 48 bits for char pointers and 36 for everything else.  I don't know if
all formats are the same -- but then I don't need to know that.  All I need
to know is that everything works properly if I cast all of my pointers right.

And this really works!  Recently I did a PRIMOS upgrade of our software.
I took 40,000 lines of C, developed and maintained, under UNIX, and ported
it to PRIMOS with 0 pointer problems.  [There are sundry incompatibilities in
library routine calls, another matter.]

Long live portable software.
-- 

In the fields of Hell where the grass grows high
Are the graves of dreams allowed to die.
	Richard Harter, SMDS  Inc.



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