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From: dewarr@my-dejanews.com
Subject: Re: null pointer representation (was: Boolean Representation)
Date: 1998/09/28
Date: 1998-09-28T00:00:00+00:00	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <6umkbn$pv5$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: evans-2709981430360001@ppp23.s9.pgh.net

In article <evans-2709981430360001@ppp23.s9.pgh.net>,
  evans@evans.pgh.pa.us (Arthur Evans Jr) wrote:
> In article <yec1zoyd2xa.fsf@king.cts.com>,
> Keith Thompson <kst@king.cts.com> wrote:
>
> > Nor can we assume that a ... null pointer is represented as all-bits-zero
>
> Indeed not.  Some years ago I was concerned about this very issue and
> asked around (probably on cla) about it.  The answers were instructive.
> Most compilers did in fact use all zeros, but some other values were
> used, including one compiler (from IBM, I think) that used the HEX
> number DEAD BEEF.  I suppose it really stood out in HEX dumps.

Art, I think this memory is wrong. At least in compilers I have seen, it is
indeed common to use DEAD BEEF for uninitialized variables, but I have not
seen it used for null pointers. If someone knows a counter example, I would
be interested.

Certainly though, you are right, Null_Address can be assumed to be all
zero bits in practice, but not Null.

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  parent reply	other threads:[~1998-09-28  0:00 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 29+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
1998-09-24  0:00 Boolean Representation matthew_snyder
1998-09-24  0:00 ` dennison
1998-09-24  0:00   ` Keith Thompson
1998-09-25  0:00     ` dennison
1998-09-25  0:00       ` Keith Thompson
1998-09-26  0:00         ` Tucker Taft
1998-09-26  0:00           ` Keith Thompson
1998-09-27  0:00             ` dewarr
1998-09-27  0:00             ` null pointer representation (was: Boolean Representation) Arthur Evans Jr
1998-09-27  0:00               ` Keith Thompson
1998-09-28  0:00               ` dewarr [this message]
1998-09-28  0:00                 ` Keith Thompson
1998-09-28  0:00                   ` dewarr
1998-09-30  0:00                     ` Keith Thompson
1998-10-02  0:00                       ` Robert I. Eachus
1998-09-28  0:00                 ` Lieven Marchand
1998-09-27  0:00           ` Boolean Representation dewarr
1998-09-24  0:00 ` dewarr
1998-09-24  0:00   ` Samuel T. Harris
1998-09-25  0:00     ` dewarr
1998-09-27  0:00       ` Samuel T. Harris
1998-09-28  0:00         ` dewar
1998-09-24  0:00   ` matthew_snyder
1998-09-24  0:00     ` dennison
1998-09-24  0:00     ` Tom Moran
1998-09-25  0:00       ` dewarr
1998-09-25  0:00         ` Tom Moran
1998-09-25  0:00     ` dewarr
1998-09-25  0:00     ` Robert I. Eachus
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