On Wed, Mar 19, 2003 at 06:08:13PM -0800, Peter Jay Salzman wrote: > i've heard this from two people now. > > some students are being taught they should stay clear of malloc() and > instead use calloc() because calloc() is the "old school" way of getting > memory dynamically. they're taught that malloc() may not be present in > all implementations of the C library. again, because calloc() is "old > school". presumably, malloc() is ... new fangled. ;) > > actually, both people used the words "old school", so i'm assuming > that's some kind of quote by the professor. > > just for my own self-edification, does anyone know anything about this > "old school" and "new school" business? i've never heard of it before. >
>From what I remember, and from a quick manpage check, calloc is the one that zeros the allocated chunk for you. I would assume that's the real reason why people would instruct their students in the use of calloc vs malloc. i think you'd be hard pressed to find a c lib implementation that didn't have malloc, so the "old school" argument is probably just a way to sound like you know what you're doing :) -Gabe _______________________________________________ vox-tech mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.lugod.org/mailman/listinfo/vox-tech
