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From: jnh@ecemwl.ncsu.edu (Joseph N. Hall)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: MPW C 3.0 memory allocator broken ...
Message-ID: <4193@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu>
Date: 15 Oct 89 23:41:48 GMT
Sender: news@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu
Reply-To: jnh@ecemwl.UUCP (Joseph N. Hall)
Organization: North Carolina State University
Lines: 15

I was porting a UNIX application that makes heavy use of calloc() and free()
the other day, and watched it die repeatedly with the DebugStr "attempt to
free".  After I replaced calloc() with NewPtrClear() and free with DisposPtr()
everything worked great ... is this a known bug?

The application made use of a lot of small, differently-sized blocks; i.e.,
short strings.  If the "improved" allocator in the MPW C libraries maintains
free lists of small blocks, maybe it's breaking under the strain of too many
different sizes ... ?  It irritates me that the library source isn't supplied
with MPW; it sure would have made debugging a hell of a lot simpler.

v   v sssss|| joseph hall                      || 4116 Brewster Drive
 v v s   s || jnh@ecemwl.ncsu.edu (Internet)   || Raleigh, NC  27606
  v   sss  || SP Software/CAD Tool Developer, Mac Hacker and Keyboardist
-----------|| Disclaimer: NCSU may not share my views, but is welcome to.