Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!samsung!know!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!julius.cs.uiuc.edu!apple!olivea!tymix!cirrusl!sunstorm!dhesi From: dhesi%cirrusl@oliveb.ATC.olivetti.com (Rahul Dhesi) Newsgroups: comp.lang.c Subject: Re: Life after free? Keywords: free malloc Message-ID: <2539@cirrusl.UUCP> Date: 4 Oct 90 01:18:17 GMT References: <5620@stpstn.UUCP> <26770@mimsy.umd.edu> Sender: news@cirrusl.UUCP Distribution: comp Organization: Cirrus Logic Inc. Lines: 31 In <26770@mimsy.umd.edu> chris@mimsy.umd.edu (Chris Torek) writes: The compiler is free to, as Ron Natalie once put it, stuff arguments into an envelope and mail them off to the function being called... This idea has always seemed so quaint, but I wonder if it really works for pointers? For example, suppose I'm in California, which I am, and you're in Maryland which you probably are, if you haven't moved since you posted your article. (Ah, moving! What a pain. I moved some time ago from Indiana from California and it's such a hassle! I still haven't finished unpacking. But I did unpack all my envelopes. I have both types -- the white ones, and the "privacy" sort that won't let you see through them. These latter ones are probably great for Modula-2 and Ada users, since you could mail "opaque" type arguments in them.) Anyway, getting back to the discussion, does Maryland follow the same addressing conventions? If I mailed you a char * pointer in an envelope, and its value was say 0x00adbcdd, would it point to the same character once it reached you? Well I once mailed some pointers off to a friend in Montana, and he reported that the objects they pointed to were very different from the objects I was using. My guess that this sort of thing varies from state to state, sort of like warranty rights that you may or may not have. This whole issue of envelopes for mailing arguments ought to be addressed by a standards committee. -- Rahul Dhesi UUCP: oliveb!cirrusl!dhesi