Subj : Re: OO compilers and efficiency
To   : comp.programming
From : Christopher Barber
Date : Fri Jul 22 2005 05:39 pm

CBFalconer wrote:
> websnarf@gmail.com wrote:
> 
> ... snip ...
> 
>>A comparable implementation in C can just malloc big blocks of
>>pointers and set them all to NULL in a single for-loop or memset
>>or whatever.
> 
> 
> It certainly can't use memset for the purpose, since all bits zero
> need not describe NULL.  That is a beginners elementary error.

While this is theoretically true that NULL pointers may not be represented by 
zeroes, I don't know what architectures are still out there for which the 
memset hack will not work.

- C

.