Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uflorida!haven!adm!xadmx!rbj@dsys.icst.nbs.gov From: rbj@dsys.icst.nbs.gov (Root Boy Jim) Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards Subject: evilness of alloca! Message-ID: <19305@adm.BRL.MIL> Date: 26 Apr 89 01:16:23 GMT Sender: news@adm.BRL.MIL Lines: 19 ? From: Doug Gwyn ? Date: 23 Apr 89 01:20:42 GMT ? In article <19255@adm.BRL.MIL> Leisner.Henr@xerox.com (Marty) writes: ? >I'm debating whether to start using alloca in some of my applications. ? We just went over that. alloca() is not available on some systems for ? good and sufficient reasons. I would think that any sane programmer ? would avoid it like the plague. So they get your version. This seems to be a religious issue. It really depends on your outlook. However, I would caution people to use it only if they know *why* they are using it. Using alloca where malloc/free would work as well is probably not a good idea. Likewise, bending over backwards to force a problem into the malloc/free paradigm when it is expressed more naturally in terms of alloca is merely being pedantic. Root Boy Jim is what I am Are you what you are or what?