Article View: comp.lang.misc
Article #897Re: Relationship between C and C++
From: robison
Date: Tue, 20 Mar 1990 01:39
Date: Tue, 20 Mar 1990 01:39
20 lines
1321 bytes
1321 bytes
> I strongly disagree with this approach if the goal is to obtain software
> quality. Take pointer arithmetic, for example. I would contend that you can
> have quality software, or you can have pointer arithmetic; but you cannot
> have both...
This is not the first attack on pointer arithmetic that I have seen.
Why is pointer arithmetic denigrated so much? The C-style pointer
arithmetic seems to me to implement a fairly simple abstraction,
roughly equivalent to ``a tape and a read/write head.''
Most C implementations do not do bounds checking on pointers,
but I fail to see why pointer arithmetic is inherently evil.
Can anyone clue me as to the basis for pointer paranoia?
Arch D. Robison
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
UUCP: {pur-ee,convex}!uiucdcs!robison
Internet: robison@CS.UIUC.EDU
Technical Details
Message-ID:
<5200048@m.cs.uiuc.edu>Path:
arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!m.cs.uiuc.edu!robisonReferences:
<8432@hubcap.clemson.edu>Show Full Headers
Complete Article Headers
Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!m.cs.uiuc.edu!robison From: robison@m.cs.uiuc.edu Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc Subject: Re: Relationship between C and C++ Message-ID: <5200048@m.cs.uiuc.edu> Date: 20 Mar 90 01:39:37 GMT References: <8432@hubcap.clemson.edu> Lines: 20 Nf-ID: #R:hubcap.clemson.edu:8432:m.cs.uiuc.edu:5200048:000:817 Nf-From: m.cs.uiuc.edu!robison Mar 19 14:56:00 1990