Life after free?

[Rahul Dhesi]

In <26770 at mimsy.umd.edu> chris at mimsy.umd.edu (Chris Torek) writes:

   The compiler is free to, as Ron Natalie once put it, stuff arguments
   into an envelope and mail them off to the function being called...

This idea has always seemed so quaint, but I wonder if it really works
for pointers?  For example, suppose I'm in California, which I am, and
you're in Maryland which you probably are, if you haven't moved since
you posted your article.  (Ah, moving!  What a pain.  I moved some time
ago from Indiana from California and it's such a hassle!  I still
haven't finished unpacking.  But I did unpack all my envelopes.  I have
both types -- the white ones, and the "privacy" sort that won't let you
see through them.  These latter ones are probably great for Modula-2
and Ada users, since you could mail "opaque" type arguments in them.)

Anyway, getting back to the discussion, does Maryland follow the same
addressing conventions?  If I mailed you a char * pointer in an
envelope, and its value was say 0x00adbcdd, would it point to the same
character once it reached you?

Well I once mailed some pointers off to a friend in Montana, and he
reported that the objects they pointed to were very different from the
objects I was using.  My guess that this sort of thing varies from
state to state, sort of like warranty rights that you may or may not
have.

This whole issue of envelopes for mailing arguments ought to be
addressed by a standards committee.
--
Rahul Dhesi <dhesi%cirrusl at oliveb.ATC.olivetti.com>
UUCP:  oliveb!cirrusl!dhesi