Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!lavaca.uh.edu!menudo.uh.edu!sugar!ficc!peter From: peter@ficc.ferranti.com (Peter da Silva) Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc Subject: Re: Answers, Chapter 1: TeX (was C's sins... and others) Message-ID: Date: 12 Nov 90 16:13:59 GMT References: <66253@lanl.gov> <8960023@hpfcso.HP.COM> Reply-To: peter@ficc.ferranti.com (Peter da Silva) Organization: Xenix Support, FICC Lines: 11 In article <8960023@hpfcso.HP.COM> mjs@hpfcso.HP.COM (Marc Sabatella) writes: > The only trouble is determining from which pool a pointer about to be free'd > came from, but that is only if you weren't clever to put that information in > the the header of the allocated block your pointer is pointing into. You're right. You *can* write a portable malloc using pointers. OK, Jim, looks like your one argument against ANSI's restriction on pointers is null and void, unless you can think of a case where such a tag isn't useful. The only remaining reasons for knowing more about the innards of a pointer than ANSI tells you is for stuff like garbage collectors which tend to be inherently non-portable. -- Peter da Silva. `-_-' +1 713 274 5180. 'U` peter@ferranti.com