Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!att!linac!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!ira.uka.de!smurf!nadia!ananke!kaiser
From: kaiser@ananke.stgt.sub.org (Andreas Kaiser)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: DOS Extender/Heap Manager
Message-ID: <7.2744358B@ananke.stgt.sub.org>
Date: 16 Nov 90 18:34:32 GMT
Organization: Ananke, Stuttgart, FRG
Lines: 26


In your msg to All, dated <16 Nov 90 19:00>, it said:

 WB> Zortech C/C++ has an additional pointer type, called a __handle
 WB> pointer, which is used like a conventional pointer, but instead points
 WB> into data that is in EMS. The swapping of EMS pages in and out is
 WB> handled transparently.

Beautiful feature. Except that handle pointers with static scope do not reserve storage... It took an aweful lot of time to find this bug experimenting with a MicroEmacs version using handle pointers for text storage.

BTW: There is a problem with these handle pointers: It should not be possible to convert a normal far pointer to a handle pointer. It's just too easy to write silly code like:

char __handle *p;
...
p = strchr(p, '.');

where p looses it's virtual memory property.

                Andreas

reas

--  
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:: Andreas Kaiser :: fido: 2:509/5.2512 & 2:507/18.7206
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