Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!sumax!amc-gw!pilchuck!dataio!fnx!nazgul!bright From: bright@nazgul.UUCP (Walter Bright) Newsgroups: comp.lang.c Subject: Re: the nil pointer is not zero Message-ID: <171@nazgul.UUCP> Date: 20 Nov 90 05:30:09 GMT References: <27636@mimsy.umd.edu> <164@nazgul.UUCP> <14516@smoke.brl.mil> Reply-To: bright@nazgul.UUCP (Walter Bright) Organization: Zortech, Seattle Lines: 10 In article <14516@smoke.brl.mil> gwyn@smoke.brl.mil (Doug Gwyn) writes: /I don't think so. What good would it do you to know how a null pointer /is represented? There is nothing useful you can do about that. 1. Explanations of how C works become much simpler (note the endless debate on usenet about NULL and 0). Making C more understandable with fewer counter-intuitive rules is useful. 2. You will be able to reliably be able to use memset and calloc to initialize structures containing pointers.