Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!iuvax!rutgers!sun-barr!newstop!sun!brahmand!grover
From: grover%brahmand@Sun.COM (Vinod Grover)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Parity hardware for uninitialized variable checking?
Message-ID: <124267@sun.Eng.Sun.COM>
Date: 7 Sep 89 05:49:17 GMT
References: <14166@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU> <28784@news.Think.COM> <14206@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU> <28866@news.Think.COM>
Distribution: usa
Lines: 18
In-reply-to: barmar@think.COM's message of 5 Sep 89 22:32:25 GMT


> My contention is that a variable with a default value is often just as
> bad as an uninitialized variable.  

As with any other feature, 'the initialized variable', is prone to misuse.
It has its uses though. For an intersting example refer to the 'Ada
Rationale'. In that example, a variable of type linked list, by default gets
to have a linked list of the correct size with all elements initialized to
to a certain value. (I do not have the exat section and page# handy, but if
you are interested I could email you the example or the reference).







Vinod