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From: henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: net.lang.c
Subject: Re: void * (was Re: malloc())
Message-ID: <6725@utzoo.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 23-May-86 13:42:21 EDT
Article-I.D.: utzoo.6725
Posted: Fri May 23 13:42:21 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 23-May-86 13:42:21 EDT
References: <3674@sun.uucp> <835@bentley.UUCP>, <3717@sun.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Lines: 13

> > Also, it's a misnomer; it has nothing to do with "void".
> 
> I presume the reason why "void *" was chosen is, as stated above, that a
> pointer of type "void *" would, when dereferenced, yield an object of type
> "void", and as such dereferencing a "void *" would be illegal...

I believe a contributing reason was the desire to avoid introducing new
keywords.  (Yes, I know, X3J11 has managed to introduce a few; it remains
true that there is a preference for avoiding it.)  Every new keyword is
bound to break some existing programs.
-- 
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