Hi all,
On Wed, 25 Apr 2001, Remco Schaar wrote:
> It is very hard to write perfect code,
True, but it's not hard to write code that doesn't leak memory.
void *p = NULL;
...
...
if( p ) { exit(POINTER_ERROR); }
void *p = malloc(n);
...
...
free( p );
p = NULL;
...
...
By which I mean that I use a certain set of pointers for memory
allocation and nothing else. The pointers are declared and
initialized to NULL in the same statement. Whenever I free some
memory I set the pointer which was used to point to it back to NULL.
Whenever I use a pointer for memory I first check that its value is
NULL. Then if I try to use it when it's already being used for
something else my program tells me in a fairly unceremonious fashion.
This is one of a number of defensive techniques I've developed over
the years. It's better to wrap this kind of stuff in a library of
defensive memory management routines (I expect you can buy one:) as
there's less room for errors and it saves a lot of typing.
Just my $0.02.
Geoff, I expect this will turn out to be one of those threads...
73,
Ged.
