From 2209858697290655944 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: f78e5,8372ae6de42be399 X-Google-Attributes: gidf78e5,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2004-02-23 09:30:20 PST Return-Path: X-Authentication-Warning: mulga.cs.mu.OZ.AU: fjh set sender to devnull@stump.algebra.com using -f Path: archiver1.google.com!news2.google.com!newsfeed2.dallas1.level3.net!news.level3.com!crtntx1-snh1.gtei.net!news.gtei.net!newsfeed1.easynews.com!easynews.com!easynews!elnk-pas-nf1!newsfeed.earthlink.net!pd7cy1no!shaw.ca!news.alt.net!comp-std-cpp-robomod!not-for-mail X-Robomod: STUMP, ichudov@algebra.com (Igor Chudov) Delivered-To: std-c++@ucar.edu From: Steve Clamage Newsgroups: comp.std.c++ Subject: Re: Array of size 0 Organization: Sun Microsystems, Inc. Message-ID: References: <403601F6.8010706@ircad.u-strasbg.fr> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: news1nwk.SFbay.Sun.COM 1077554664 3932 129.146.79.208 (23 Feb 2004 16:44:24 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@news1nwk.sfbay.sun.com NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2004 16:44:24 +0000 (UTC) User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; SunOS sun4u; en-US; rv:1.4) Gecko/20031128 X-Accept-Language: en-US, en X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.60-mulga_r1 (1.212-2003-09-23-exp) on mulga.cs.mu.OZ.AU X-Spam-Status: No, hits=0.0 required=5.2 tests=none autolearn=no version=2.60-mulga_r1 Approved: Fergus Henderson , moderator of comp.std.c++ Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2004 11:26:27 CST Lines: 34 Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.std.c++:1207 Gabriel Dos Reis wrote: > stephen.clamage@sun.com (Steve Clamage) writes: > > | Now consider > | int* myArray = new int[n]; > | If n were not allowed to be zero, the runtime system would have to > | check for zero elements and generate some kind of runtime error, > | probably an exception. The program would have to check specially for > | zero size or be prepared to deal with the exception -- perhaps in many > | places. > > Is that really different from the current behaviour whereby the > new-expression can throw because of shortage of storage and the > program has to check? > On limited-resource computers where you expect allocation to fail, there is probably little difference. That is, being able to recover from an out-of-memory situation takes careful design and programming anyway. But for common applications on desktop or data-center computer systems, a failed allocation is unusual, and typically there is little you can do to recover. It is often reasonable to ignore the out-of-memory exception and let the program exit more-or-less gracefully. -- Steve Clamage, stephen.clamage@sun.com --- [ comp.std.c++ is moderated. To submit articles, try just posting with ] [ your news-reader. If that fails, use mailto:std-c++@ncar.ucar.edu ] [ --- Please see the FAQ before posting. --- ] [ FAQ: http://www.jamesd.demon.co.uk/csc/faq.html ]