Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!uunet!mcsun!ukc!mucs!mccuts!zzassgl From: zzassgl@uts.mcc.ac.uk (Geoff Lane) Newsgroups: comp.unix.internals Subject: Re: (Too) Much Ado About Nothing (Re: Shared libraries are not necessary) Keywords: X11 silliness Message-ID: <2883@mccuts.uts.mcc.ac.uk> Date: 11 Jun 91 12:50:31 GMT References: <315@titccy.cc.titech.ac.jp> <1991Jun10.061602.25336@kithrup.COM> <426@n4hgf.Mt-Park.GA.US> Organization: Manchester Computing Centre, Manchester, England, M13 9PL Lines: 19 In article <426@n4hgf.Mt-Park.GA.US> wht@n4hgf.Mt-Park.GA.US (Warren Tucker) writes: >I propose the next marathon twisted-fest begin with a discussion >of changing the traditional null string terminatopr to 255. >That should spark some really enriching discussion and delicious >back biting about nothing. :-) Arrrrrhhhhhhhhh......... NO NO NO. What you REALLY should do is prefix all strings with an expicit length. Look at the advantages - no more scanning down the bytes looking for the end - no more having to rewrite all the string handling routines because your particular project *must* have strings with embedded null bytes - no more forgetting about that final invisible byte and overwriting something vital. By the way, is this a 5 minute argument or a 10 minute argument? -- Geoff. Lane. Janet: zzassgl@uk.ac.mcc.cms UTS Sys Admin, Manchester Computing Centre, Oxford Rd, Manchester, M13 9PL