Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: net.lang.c
Subject: Re: ints vs. pointers
Message-ID: <4615@utzoo.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 10-Nov-84 21:38:16 EST
Article-I.D.: utzoo.4615
Posted: Sat Nov 10 21:38:16 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 10-Nov-84 21:38:16 EST
References: <80@physiol.OZ>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Lines: 14

> [Quoting K&R:]
> 	If two pointers of the same type are subtracted, the result is con-
> 	verted (by division by the length of the object) to an int representing
> 	the number of objects separating the pointed-to objects.
>
> [Hence pointers cannot be larger than ints.]

The explicit use of "int" here is now generally considered a mistake.
The ANSI draft (17 Oct 1984 draft) says that the result is a signed
integer of implementation-dependent size, i.e. it would be wise to use
a long if you need to hold such a result.
-- 
				Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
				{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry