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From: guy@gorodish.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: How to get Ada private types in C
Message-ID: <15039@sun.uucp>
Date: Fri, 13-Mar-87 20:24:43 EST
Article-I.D.: sun.15039
Posted: Fri Mar 13 20:24:43 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 14-Mar-87 15:08:58 EST
References: <172@m10ux.UUCP> <513@ci-dandelion.UUCP> <5767@mimsy.UUCP>
Sender: news@sun.uucp
Reply-To: guy@sun.UUCP (Guy Harris)
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mountain View
Lines: 14

>In 4BSD, the generic pointer type is `caddr_t' (Core ADDRess Type);

Well, "caddr_t" isn't specific to 4BSD; other versions of UNIX have it.
However, it's not really a "new" type; it's just a "typedef" name for
"char *".

>in ANSI draft C it is `void *' (a name that I find utterly lacking in taste,
>though it does avoid a new keyword).

An argument can be made that the name "void *" emphasises that these
pointers cannot be dereferenced, since dereferencing a "void *" would yield
a "void".  If this was, in fact, a reason why "void *" was chosed to be the
name of the "generic pointer" type, this should perhaps appear in the
Rationale.