From:	kagel AT quasar DOT bloomberg DOT com
Date:	Tue, 15 Oct 1996 08:31:37 -0400
Message-Id:	<9610151231.AA02650@quasar.bloomberg.com >
To:	djgpp AT delorie DOT com
In-Reply-To:	<designDz6ns1.EEF@netcom.com>
Subject:	Re: Pointers
Reply-To:	kagel AT dg1 DOT bloomberg DOT com

    Anyway, I read the question not as: "do different platforms have the same
    size pointers?" (pretty obviously not true), but as "on a given
    platform, will pointers to different types of objects be the same size?"
    And the answer is: not necessarily--though you'll have to search long
    and hard to find an exception, the standard makes no such guarantee.

Historical note: The DEC20's KLxx processors were 36bit word processors which
used 1-word pointers for everything except characters in normal mode and 2-word
pointers in extended mode (like large-model pointers).  Since the processor
supported any character size from 1-36bits character pointers needed an extra
word for byte size and offset-into-word information so character pointers where
2 or 3 words depending on mode.  Of course working DEC20s are probably harder
to find than unicorns!  Just food for the trivia minded.

-- 
Art S. Kagel, kagel AT quasar DOT bloomberg DOT com

A proverb is no proverb to you 'till life has illustrated it.  -- John Keats

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