[vox-tech] malloc() is ... old school?

[Gabriel Rosa]

On Wed, Mar 19, 2003 at 06:08:13PM -0800, Peter Jay Salzman wrote:
> i've heard this from two people now.
> 
> some students are being taught they should stay clear of malloc() and
> instead use calloc() because calloc() is the "old school" way of getting
> memory dynamically.  they're taught that malloc() may not be present in
> all implementations of the C library.  again, because calloc() is "old
> school".  presumably, malloc() is ... new fangled.   ;)
> 
> actually, both people used the words "old school", so i'm assuming
> that's some kind of quote by the professor.
> 
> just for my own self-edification, does anyone know anything about this
> "old school" and "new school" business?  i've never heard of it before.
> 

>From what I remember, and from a quick manpage check, calloc is the one that
zeros the allocated chunk for you.

I would assume that's the real reason why people would instruct their students
in the use of calloc vs malloc. i think you'd be hard pressed to find a c lib 
implementation that didn't have malloc, so the "old school" argument is
probably just a way to sound like you know what you're doing :)

-Gabe