Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!murtoa.cs.mu.oz.au!munnari.oz.au!mimir!hugin!augean!idall From: idall@augean.OZ (Ian Dall) Newsgroups: comp.lang.c Subject: Re: effect of free() Message-ID: <600@augean.OZ> Date: 26 Sep 89 04:06:48 GMT References: <319@cubmol.BIO.COLUMBIA.EDU> <3756@buengc.BU.EDU> <1989Aug17.005548.745@twwells.com> <16022@vail.ICO.ISC.COM> <248@seti.inria.fr> <246@ssp1.idca.tds.philips.nl> <21952@cup.portal.com> <10983@smoke.BRL.MIL> <591@augean.OZ> <125@bbxsda.UUCP> <1 <137@bbxsda Organization: Engineering Faculty, University of Adelaide, Australia Lines: 22 Reply-To: In article <11131@smoke.BRL.MIL> gwyn@brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn) writes: > >This is NOT an ivory-tower issue. I certainly wouldn't be wasting >effort trying to explain it to you guys if it were. > >I personally believe that architectures for which this is a real issue >SHOULD be designed, not just for dead-pointer access trapping, but in >order to obtain other benefits of tagged architectures. I agree with your logic, but am unsure about the premise. If disallowing traps on examining pointers to non-existant memory would prevent the introduction of better machines, then I agree it is worthwhile to allow the traps. But, I am unconvinced about the advantages of such an architecture. Please explain how allowing these traps allows for "better" hardware. Follow up to comp.arch if it seems appropriate. -- Ian Dall life (n). A sexually transmitted disease which afflicts some people more severely than others. idall@augean.oz