Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!husc6!linus!alliant!rosenkra From: rosenkra@Alliant.COM (Bill Rosenkranz) Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st Subject: Re: Clearing memory [was Re: Another great quote from Mr. Good] Message-ID: <2227@alliant.Alliant.COM> Date: 15 Aug 88 18:32:33 GMT References: <1103@atari.UUCP> <19880807215637.4.JRD@MOA.SCRC.Symbolics.COM> <366@bdt.UUCP> Reply-To: rosenkra@alliant.UUCP (Bill Rosenkranz) Organization: Alliant Computer Systems, Littleton, MA Lines: 30 In article <366@bdt.UUCP> david@bdt.UUCP (David Beckemeyer) writes: >In article <19880807215637.4.JRD@MOA.SCRC.Symbolics.COM> jrd@STONY-BROOK.SCRC.SYMBOLICS.COM (John R. Dunning) writes: ->>I believe it's a bug that programmers rely on undocumented features like ->>that. [ good points deleted ] ->First some historical considerations: -> ->In C programs, it is common for UNIX hackers to expect uninititalized data ->to be zeroed, but this should be a function of the compiler startup code ->more than the C programmer. However since the compiler writers found that ->TOS cleared the BSS for them, they probably removed the code in the startup. [ more good stuff deleted ] ->Now for a possible alternate solution to the clearing BSS problem: [ even more good stuff deleted ] as soon as i got alan pratt's improved gemstart.s, i did 2 things: 1)include the osbind.o traps (for gemdos/bios/xbios calls) so i wouldn't have to always remember to link osbind.o 2) added code to zero bss (controlled by a global switch much like the stksize global). i of course still use alcyon (slow but capable). ->David Beckemeyer (david@bdt.uucp) | "Don't call me Stupid!" wouldn't dream of it, dave! -bill