Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!cs.utexas.edu!asuvax!enuxha!hurwitz
From: hurwitz@enuxha.eas.asu.edu (Roger A. Hurwitz)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: casting void pointers
Keywords: void, pointer, malloc(), cast
Message-ID: <3121@enuxha.eas.asu.edu>
Date: 20 Apr 91 17:59:45 GMT
Organization: Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ
Lines: 21


Appendix A, section 6.8, of K&R 2d, states in part,

	"Unlike the pointer-to-pointer conversions discussed in [section]
	A6.6, which generally require an explicit cast, pointers may 
	be assigned to and from	pointers of type *void, and may 
	be compared with them."
	
Does this mean that the explicit cast that one always sees with
malloc() is unnecessary since malloc() returns a void pointer?
For example, why not:

	fooptr = malloc(sizeof(struct foo));
	
instead of:

	fooptr = (struct foo *) malloc(sizeof(struct foo));
	
Even K&R 2d states that an explicit cast should be used with malloc(),
in another part of the book (p. 142), but I am having trouble reconciling
that with the above language.