SLORES@umiami.miami.edu (Stanislaw L. Olejniczak) (11/27/89)
Many thanks for the numerous answers I received to my question. The problem was, of course, the requirement that realloc receives as an argument either a pointer previously returned by a malloc _or_ (char *)0, while I passed to it a pointer initialized as char *p = "A string". Some respondent warned me that some compiler implementations get confused if the argument is (char *)0. Knowing all this I went back to TFM, including some for beginners, some for intermediate, and some for advanced users, and looked again for a clear reference to that fact. I was able to piece the reason from various section of K&R, but simply _nowhere_ could I find documentation for realloc stating that fact. This includes basic and intermediate manuals, which went to great lengths to explain dynamic memory allocation. If someone would have a suggestion on a book or two that would go into such matters in a fairly clear manner, I woulod appreciate the recommendations. Again, thanks for all your help and assistance. ---- Stan Olejniczak Internet: slores@umiami.miami.edu University of Miami, FL USA UUCP: (temp void) gould!umbio!solejni SLORES@UMIAMI.BITNET UUCP: (?) umigw!gables!slores Voice: (305) 547-6571 FAX: (305) 548-4612 My opinions cannot possibly represent the views of anyone else!
gvr@brunix (George V. Reilly) (11/28/89)
In article <3772@umiami.miami.edu> SLORES@umiami.miami.edu (Stanislaw L. Olejniczak) writes:
< Many thanks for the numerous answers I received to my question. The
< problem was, of course, the requirement that realloc receives as an
< argument either a pointer previously returned by a malloc _or_ (char *)0,
< while I passed to it a pointer initialized as char *p = "A string". Some
< respondent warned me that some compiler implementations get confused if
< the argument is (char *)0.
<
< Knowing all this I went back to TFM, including some for beginners, some for
< intermediate, and some for advanced users, and looked again for a clear
< reference to that fact. I was able to piece the reason from various
< section of K&R, but simply _nowhere_ could I find documentation for
< realloc stating that fact. This includes basic and intermediate manuals,
< which went to great lengths to explain dynamic memory allocation.
<
< If someone would have a suggestion on a book or two that would go into
< such matters in a fairly clear manner, I woulod appreciate the
< recommendations. Again, thanks for all your help and assistance.
_C: A Reference Manual_, Second Edition, Samuel P. Harbison &
Guy L. Steele Jr, Prentice-Hall, 1987, ISBN 0-13-109802-0
gives a good explanation of how to use realloc(). It also gives a
fairly detailed explanation of how to use the rest of the standard
library.
------
George V. Reilly gvr@cs.brown.edu
uunet!brunix!gvr gvr@browncs.bitnet Box 1910, Brown U, Prov, RI 02912