Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!cmcl2!brl-adm!umd5!trantor.umd.edu!louie
From: louie@trantor.umd.edu (Louis A. Mamakos)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Why NULL is 0
Message-ID: <2448@umd5.umd.edu>
Date: 11 Mar 88 23:34:09 GMT
References: <10576@mimsy.UUCP> <124@polygen.UUCP>
Sender: ris@umd5.umd.edu
Reply-To: louie@trantor.umd.edu (Louis A. Mamakos)
Organization: University of Maryland, College Park
Lines: 12

In article <124@polygen.UUCP> pablo@polygen.uucp (Pablo Halpern) writes:
>However, if I were writing a C compiler, I would choose a size for all
>pointers equal to the size of the largest possible pointer.  

Please don't do this.  On, for example, our Unisys 1100 machine, a "regular"
pointer is 8 bytes long (2 words, 72 bits).  A pointer to a function is 
64 bytes long (8 words, 288 bits).  Yes, this is a word-addressable machine
with 4 9-bit bytes per word. The existing semantics work just fine if
you don't assume programmer brain-damage.

Louis A. Mamakos  WA3YMH    Internet: louie@TRANTOR.UMD.EDU
University of Maryland, Computer Science Center - Systems Programming