Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!seismo!ukma!rex!samsung!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!snorkelwacker!spdcc!ima!haddock!karl
From: karl@haddock.ima.isc.com (Karl Heuer)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Explicit cast of NULL (was Re: Short-circuiting conditions)
Message-ID: <16980@haddock.ima.isc.com>
Date: 27 Jun 90 21:23:31 GMT
References: <4556@thebes.Thalatta.COM> <111287@linus.mitre.org> <8860@crdgw1.crd.ge.com> <807@mwtech.UUCP> <9473@hubcap.clemson.edu>
Reply-To: karl@haddock.ima.isc.com (Karl Heuer)
Organization: Interactive Systems, Cambridge, MA 02138-5302
Lines: 12

In article <9473@hubcap.clemson.edu> grimlok@hubcap.clemson.edu (Mike Percy) writes:
>As near as I can tell, the need for explicit casts on NULL pointers _IS_
>obsolete.  Don't continue to propogate obsolete-isms.  Use prototyping
>utilities to fix old programs.

The problem is with old *compilers*, not old *programs*.  ANSI compilers are
not yet ubiquitous, so the careful programmer must still use explicit casts
in function arguments to make sure that the program will work on pre-ANSI
implementations.  An ANSI-to-Classic conversion tool could do the job, but
I haven't heard of one that inserts the necessary casts.

Karl W. Z. Heuer (karl@kelp.ima.isc.com or ima!kelp!karl), The Walking Lint