From: doug@cs.dartmouth.edu (Doug McIlroy)
Subject: [TUHS] origins of void*
Date: Sun, 05 Nov 2017 19:37:16 -0500 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <201711060037.vA60bGA2090787@tahoe.cs.Dartmouth.EDU> (raw)
As has been explained, void came from Algol 68 via Steve Bourne.
As no object could be declared void, void* was a useless
construct. A kind of variable that could point to any object
was required to state the type of useful functions like qsort.
To avoid proliferation of keywords, the useless void* was
pressed into service. I do not remember who suggested that.
Doug
next reply other threads:[~2017-11-06 0:37 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 19+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2017-11-06 0:37 Doug McIlroy [this message]
2017-11-06 4:59 ` Steve Johnson
-- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
2017-11-05 15:43 Noel Chiappa
2017-11-05 16:58 ` Steve Johnson
2017-11-04 10:19 Paul Ruizendaal
2017-11-05 9:48 ` Clem Cole
2017-11-05 10:06 ` arnold
2017-11-05 13:20 ` Ron Natalie
2017-11-05 15:14 ` Warner Losh
2017-11-05 17:53 ` Clem cole
2017-11-05 18:29 ` Steve Simon
2017-11-05 20:12 ` Clem cole
2017-11-05 21:08 ` Chet Ramey
2017-11-05 21:38 ` Clem cole
2017-11-05 21:53 ` Steve Simon
2017-11-05 20:44 ` Paul Ruizendaal
2017-11-05 21:06 ` Warner Losh
2017-11-06 7:24 ` arnold
2017-11-06 15:02 ` Warner Losh
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