Re: [PATCH] Don't cast the return of malloc() and friends

[Benno Schulenberg]

Op 01-09-2020 om 19:41 schreef Hussam al-Homsi:
>>> Subject: [PATCH] Don't cast the return of malloc() and friends Because
>>> doing so is superfluous.
>> 
>> It may be redundant, but does it do any harm?
> 
> Other than wasting some space, it can do harm if one forgets to include
> <stdlib.h> and older C compilers then suppose a return of int and trigger the
> wrong conversion from int to a pointer type.

This is not relevant, as I use fairly recent compilers that would warn about
this, and I make sure nano compiles without warnings.

>> Also, if ever the type of one of the relevant variables is changed, the cast
>> will cause compilation errors -- without the cast the compilation would
>> silently but probably wrongly succeed.
> 
> The conversion from void*, the return type of malloc(), to the target type is
> automatic and doesn't need any intervention.

Of course.  But not relevant to the above argument.

> Now about changes to target types. That would only be a problem if the
> argument of malloc() references the target type: T* p = malloc(sizeof (T)); 
> For that problem I suggest using this idiom instead: T* p = malloc(sizeof
> *p); Where the type info is specified only once. But that's for another time.
> :)

Such a patch would not be accepted, as I want to see what type the malloc()
is for.

Benno

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