From:	"John M. Aldrich" <fighteer AT cs DOT com>
Newsgroups:	comp.os.msdos.djgpp
Subject:	Re: free() question
Date:	Fri, 10 Jan 1997 18:34:09 -0800
Organization:	Two pounds of chaos and a pinch of salt
Lines:	34
Message-ID:	<32D6FC21.70C8@cs.com>
References:	<199701081113 DOT MAA01144 AT gilberto DOT physik DOT rwth-aachen DOT de> <32D4155A DOT 51F4 AT exis DOT net> <32D6811F DOT 9B1 AT ibm DOT net>
Reply-To:	fighteer AT cs DOT com
NNTP-Posting-Host:	ppp101.cs.com
Mime-Version:	1.0
To:	djgpp AT delorie DOT com
DJ-Gateway:	from newsgroup comp.os.msdos.djgpp

Joseph Donahue wrote:
> 
> I must agree with you (Joe) about good habits.  But did you intend to
> give the impression the program should terminate?
> 
> If malloc() fails on a modern multitasking operating system, there is
> still the chance that giving the user the oportunity to close some files
> or stop some other non-essential programs will free enough memory for
> the program to continue without reloading/reinitializing.

IMHO there is no way to count on this being the case in any system. 
DOS, for example.  But 99% of the time, if malloc() fails, your program
cannot effectively continue and will have to be terminated.  Of course,
depending on how interactive/user friendly the program is, it can get
more or less detailed in its error messages.  :)

> Ah...while I'm here...could someone please tell me what djgpp is?  I
> assume this is some C/C++ compiler?

Umm.. yeah.  :)  In fact, DJGPP is a complete 32-bit protected mode port
of GNU C/C++/Pascal and assorted utilities to MS-DOS.  It is perhaps the
single best MS-DOS compiler in existence, producing code that is faster,
cleaner, and smaller than Borland's 32-bit compiler.  For example, id
Software's hit game Quake was written and compiled using DJGPP!

For more info, visit http://www.delorie.com/djgpp/, and browse around.

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