Re: Zero length Objects

[Kilgallen@SpamCop.net (Larry Kilgallen)]

In article <2kh2leF2ct4hU1@uni-berlin.de>, "Nick Roberts" <nick.roberts@acm.org> writes:

> For the curious, the mechanism I suggested was that the compiler 'invents'
> unique encodings for access values that reference zero-size objects. An
> invented encoding can be any value that can be stored in an object of the
> access type which is guaranteed never to be the same as any valid address
> (or other invented value in scope), assuming the typical mechanism that an
> access value which references a nonzero-size object is simply its address.

I don't understand how one can guarantee such non-conflicting encodings
are possible on all architectures, particular when the compiler supports
operating system programming in Ada.