Thread: Difficult linked list question.

I'm not going to post all 1100 lines of BSD code for this question.


The question stems from the following declaration in a singly linked list.

Code:

struct generic_node { 
      void *data; 
      struct generic_node *next; 
};

1)How can this declaration not be typesafe?
2)How can this not have internal storage?

Explanation, sample line code, or anything else would be appreciated.

Thanks

sounds like a homework assignment.
And it's so simple that anyone thinking it difficult can't have paid attention in class.

I would almost find humor in the response, but it's been well over 15 years since I've been in school. I was asking the question becuase I was wondering about the TAILQ and CIRCLEQ macros found in NetBSD.

Also, if you looked at an earlier post, I had asked about aliasing. I'm trying to make heads or tails how the various BSD's implement linked lists. This means trying to understand the various sheep tricks used by the engineers.

ok, well here goes nothing.

You're using void pointers.
That means you're loosing whatever type checking you might have had.
You're also not storing the data itself in the list since you're using pointers to data instead of the data itself.

I thought everyone would be able to figure that out.

Unless they are confronted with 1100 lines of hostile code. Then we hit panic mode and forget everything we learned. I guess it would be like a person that learned hand to hand fighting, but froze up when they were attacked in real life.