[COFF] Re: Maximum Array Sizes in 16 bit C

[Aron Insinga <aki@insinga.com>]

FWIW, I just saw this in code generated by bison:

     (yyvsp[-4].string_val), (yyvsp[-2].string_val), (yyvsp[0].string_val)

(IIUC) referencing the addresses under the top of the stack when passing 
$2, $4, $6 into a function from an action (skipping a couple of 
tokens).  So the sign just depends on which way the stack is growing.

As for range checking of pointers into a malloc'd block of memory, the 
pointer could have just 2 things: the address at the start of the block 
and the pointer itself, some moving address in the block; and then 
before the start of the block malloc could stash the address of the end 
of the block (where it could be referenced by all pointers into the 
block).  So instead of a triple word, the pointer is a double word, and 
the malloc'd block has an extra word before it.  This must have been 
done before by someone, somewhere.

I don't think of pointers and arrays in C as the same thing, but rather 
array references as an alternate syntax for pointer arithmetic (or vice 
versa).

- Aron