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From: drw@cullvax.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: initializing null pointers
Message-ID: <785@cullvax.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 9-Feb-87 11:42:42 EST
Article-I.D.: cullvax.785
Posted: Mon Feb  9 11:42:42 1987
Date-Received: Tue, 10-Feb-87 05:15:55 EST
Organization: Cullinet Software, Inc., Westwood, MA
Lines: 18

jans@stalker.gwd.tek.com (Jan Steinman) writes:
> The most portable thing to do is NEVER dereference a pointer that has not been
> initialized.  Some micro compilers I've used don't even initialize automatics!

I would suspect that any optiomizing compiler would try to avoid
initializing automatics--they're not required to, and it takes time.

On a larger scale, hasn't anyone who reads this group learned that the
language is defined by its definition (i.e., K&R and its successors),
not by what their own favorite compiler happens to do?  Until you
learn the difference between specification and implementation, you
haven't learned how to program.

Dale
-- 
Dale Worley		Cullinet Software
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