Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!cmcl2!adm!smoke!gwyn
From: gwyn@smoke.ARPA (Doug Gwyn )
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Out of range pointers
Message-ID: <8564@smoke.ARPA>
Date: 22 Sep 88 17:44:23 GMT
References: <867@osupyr.mast.ohio-state.edu> <3200@geac.UUCP> <1430@ficc.uu.net> <1988Sep15.145026.20325@ateng.uucp> <16041@ism780c.isc.com <28227@think.UUCP> <8557@smoke.ARPA> <33666@XAIT.XEROX.COM>
Reply-To: gwyn@brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn (VLD/VMB) )
Organization: Ballistic Research Lab (BRL), APG, MD.
Lines: 10

In article <33666@XAIT.XEROX.COM> g-rh@XAIT.Xerox.COM (Richard Harter) writes:
>one checks the input for validity.  If there is trouble in your routine,
>that's your problem.  But if you don't check your input and it violates
>your interface assumptions anything can happen.

You cannot fix the caller's violation of the interface spec in the called
routine.

It often pays to perform thorough parameter validation while debugging an
application, but you should not rely on such micro-tests for robustness.