Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!van-bc!
From: lphillips@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca (Larry Phillips)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: POKEL 0,0
Keywords: Is this authorized?
Message-ID: <1174@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca>
Date: 27 Feb 90 21:56:09 GMT
Lines: 27
Return-Path: <lpami!lphillips>
To: van-bc!rnews

In <2622@leah.Albany.Edu>, wfh58@leah.Albany.Edu (William F. Hammond) writes:
>The RKM's are pretty specific on the point that there is only one
>absolute address in memory -- and it's not 00000000.  I would be very
>unhappy with a software product that required me to poke something into
>that location.    -- Bill

There are two simple errors thet lead to the need for a program to zero out the
longword at locatin 0. One error is a programmer storing a value using an
uninitialized pointer, or a pointer that has not been checked for validity.
Normally, this would not bother anything, except that the second error is that
some programs fetch a value from a location pointed to by an uninitialized
pointer, or one that has not been checked for validity. Depending on the use to
which the value is put, the results can be innocuous, irritating, or fatal.

So, you can either use a program to zero out the longword in location 0,m or
toss the programs that cause and/or are broken by the errors in them.

-larry

--
Gallium Arsenide is the technology of the future;
  always has been, always will be.
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|   //   Larry Phillips                                                 |
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