effect of free()

[Ian Dall]

In article <11131 at smoke.BRL.MIL> gwyn at brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn) writes:
>
>This is NOT an ivory-tower issue.  I certainly wouldn't be wasting
>effort trying to explain it to you guys if it were.
>
>I personally believe that architectures for which this is a real issue
>SHOULD be designed, not just for dead-pointer access trapping, but in
>order to obtain other benefits of tagged architectures.

I agree with your logic, but am unsure about the premise. If
disallowing traps on examining pointers to non-existant memory would
prevent the introduction of better machines, then I agree it is
worthwhile to allow the traps. But, I am unconvinced about the
advantages of such an architecture.

Please explain how allowing these traps allows for "better" hardware.
Follow up to comp.arch if it seems appropriate.

-- 
 Ian Dall           life (n). A sexually transmitted disease which afflicts
                              some people more severely than others.
idall at augean.oz