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From: kent@xanth.UUCP (Kent Paul Dolan)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Passing (char *) NULL to printf to match %s
Message-ID: <2163@xanth.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 18-Aug-87 14:08:10 EDT
Article-I.D.: xanth.2163
Posted: Tue Aug 18 14:08:10 1987
Date-Received: Thu, 20-Aug-87 06:09:09 EDT
References: <166@qetzal.UUCP> <157@hobbes.UUCP> <875@bsu-cs.UUCP> <1219@cognos.UUCP> <25173@sun.uucp> <298@apex.UUCP>
Reply-To: kent@xanth.UUCP (Kent Paul Dolan)
Organization: Old Dominion University, Norfolk Va.
Lines: 23
Keywords: MSC,NULL segments
Summary: yukky architectures damaging C


[I just _know_ this is gonna get me flamed.  Line eater, eat this posting!]

Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed how C is being warped, made
ugly and complex, because ONE microprocessor manufacturer couldn't see
fit to provide a flat, linear address space?  How about if we just
write off the 8086 and 80286, and the usual mode of the 80386, and
design C as if pointers were NOT structures, there was only ONE
address zero, and so on?  If someone _has_ to use those bizzare devices,
let him invent a compiler that reads "virtual machine C" (i.e., flat
address space) and kludges it for the weird case, but let the standard
C language treat the machine as if designed by a rational being.

I don't think it is a useful endeavor to labor at such length to embed
the hardware design mistakes of the past in the C standards of the
future.

[Incoming!  I'm _allergic_ to asbestos long johns, and breathing
asbestos lint (asbestos lint: the only way to find all the subtle
usage errors in flames ;-) is really bad for my lungs!  I think I'll
invent the multi-layer metal-layer insulating set of long johns.  Pat.
Pending]

Kent, the man from xanth.