From:	Joseph Donahue <jwdonah AT ibm DOT net>
Newsgroups:	comp.os.msdos.djgpp
Subject:	Re: free() question
Date:	Fri, 10 Jan 1997 12:49:19 -0500
Lines:	27
Message-ID:	<32D6811F.9B1@ibm.net>
References:	<199701081113 DOT MAA01144 AT gilberto DOT physik DOT rwth-aachen DOT de> <32D4155A DOT 51F4 AT exis DOT net>
Reply-To:	jwdonah AT ibm DOT net
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To:	djgpp AT delorie DOT com
DJ-Gateway:	from newsgroup comp.os.msdos.djgpp

Joe Wright wrote:
> 

<<< Snip >>>>

> Good habits are as hard to break as bad ones.  I always check the
> return from malloc (or fopen) in a conditional like:
> 
>         if ((ptr1 = (char *)malloc(1024)) == NULL)
>                 do_not_pass_go();
>         ptr2 = ptr1;
> 
> There is little you can do if malloc() fails and there is no use
> continuing with the program.  Make it stop and try to fix it.
> In any case, if malloc() fails, neither ptr1 nor ptr2 contain valid
> pointers.  And there is nothing to free() anyway.

I must agree with you (Joe) about good habits.  But did you intend to
give the impression the program should terminate?

If malloc() fails on a modern multitasking operating system, there is
still the chance that giving the user the oportunity to close some files
or stop some other non-essential programs will free enough memory for
the program to continue without reloading/reinitializing.

Ah...while I'm here...could someone please tell me what djgpp is?  I
assume this is some C/C++ compiler?

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