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Path: utzoo!utgpu!utcsri!greg
From: greg@utcsri.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c,news.software.b
Subject: Re: passing NULL to functions
Message-ID: <4724@utcsri.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 3-May-87 18:42:12 EDT
Article-I.D.: utcsri.4724
Posted: Sun May  3 18:42:12 1987
Date-Received: Mon, 4-May-87 01:47:07 EDT
References: <150@sds.UUCP> <1129@ius2.cs.cmu.edu> <5804@brl-smoke.ARPA>
Reply-To: greg@utcsri.UUCP (Gregory Smith)
Organization: CSRI, University of Toronto
Lines: 22
Xref: utgpu comp.lang.c:1972 news.software.b:565
Summary: 

In article <5804@brl-smoke.ARPA> gwyn@brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn (VLD/VMB) <gwyn>) writes:
>In article <1129@ius2.cs.cmu.edu> edw@ius2.cs.cmu.edu (Eddie Wyatt) writes:
>>#define alloc(type)		((type *) malloc(sizeof(type)))
>
>Yup, although you might want one more set of () around the first `type'.
>

But then alloc(int) -> (((int) *) malloc (sizeof(int)))	is a syntax error.

The problem you seem to be addressing is that (type *) is not always a
cast to pointer to type: e.g.  int (*)() means pointer to func returning int,
but ( int (*)() * ) means you get a syntax error.

There is no cure for this; it is a result of C's bass-ackward type syntax.
That definition of alloc simply cannot be used with types containing
array or function notation ( although you can alwaytypedef them to
avoid having ()'s and [n]'s in the 'alloc()' ).

-- 
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Greg Smith     University of Toronto      UUCP: ..utzoo!utcsri!greg
Have vAX, will hack...