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: 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