Newsgroups: comp.std.c++ Path: utzoo!henry From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) Subject: Re: null references & dereferencing null pointers Message-ID: <1990Aug1.170554.21854@zoo.toronto.edu> Organization: U of Toronto Zoology References: <56159@microsoft.UUCP> Date: Wed, 1 Aug 90 17:05:54 GMT In article rls@onondaga.steinmetz.ge.com (Rod Sprattling) writes: > >One use for dereferencing null pointers leaps to mind. Consider this >definition, used in Intrinsics-based widgets in the X Window System: > >#define XtOffset(type,field) \ ... The correct way to deal with this is with ANSI C's `offsetof' macro, which can do whatever magic is necessary in a particular implementation. That is, there is no need to invent a solution -- e.g. allowing null dereferencing -- for this problem, it has already been solved. -- The 486 is to a modern CPU as a Jules | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology Verne reprint is to a modern SF novel. | henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry