Re: Pascal vs C style string ?

guerin@IRO.UMontreal.CA:
!The use of zero-terminated strings restricts the contents of strings. They
!cannot include the zero byte. Length-attributed strings can contain
!arbitrary data.


    One hack around that could be to encode the zero byte as
    zero-zero bytes. The decoding routine identifies consecutive
    zero-zero bytes as the encoding of a single legal zero byte and
    understands that a singly occuring zero byte is actually the end of
    string marker. I believe this hack is used in transmitting packets
    over the network while agreeing upon a packet boundary pattern.
    Ofcourse, the normal string operations will have to re-written but if
    you could find an application that legally identifies the zero byte
    as part of a string....


--
Nandakumar Sankaran, G34 Jordan, Comp. Sci. Dept., Clemson Univ. SC 29634
311-8 Old Greenville Hwy. Clemson SC 29631-1651 (803)653-7749
http://www.cs.clemson.edu/~nandu/nandu.html nandu@cs.clemson.edu
--

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