Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uflorida!gatech!udel!rochester!pt.cs.cmu.edu!andrew.cmu.edu!jk3k+
From: jk3k+@andrew.cmu.edu (Joe Keane)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: String length
Message-ID: <0XvqQJy00Wo=ATV2hg@andrew.cmu.edu>
Date: 7 Feb 89 22:00:53 GMT
References: <1944@lindy.Stanford.EDU>
Organization: Mathematics, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Lines: 9
In-Reply-To: <1944@lindy.Stanford.EDU>

Dick Guertin writes:
> Such an implementation has adverse effects when the string is sent to/from an
> external device, such as a file.  The 'length' must be with the string, or the
> string needs a terminator character.

Look what read() and write() use: length and pointer.  The DMA operations they
do probably use the same thing.  For these operations, you can't use a
terminator character, and i don't see why you'd want the length next to the
characters.