[MOAB-dev] [Itaps-users] [PATCH 1/2] iMesh_MOAB: do not allocate new memory for count=0 items

[James Porter]

On Fri, 2011-06-10 at 21:02 +0200, Jed Brown wrote:
> On Fri, Jun 10, 2011 at 20:59, James Porter <jvporter at wisc.edu> wrote:
>         In any case, a better spec would simply be "if you want iMesh
>         to
>         allocate the array for you, pass NULL as the list pointer",
>         (i.e. get
>         rid of the case where alloc=0 means "allocate the array for
>         me"). I'm
>         not really sure why we need two ways to tell iMesh to allocate
>         the array
>         for us.
> 
> Yes, this is what I am advocating.

That's not what your patch does, though. I think this sounds like a good
idea in general (I missed the first email that explained the context),
but I don't think "never allocate for 0-sized arrays" is the right way.
It just adds another layer of complexity to something that's already too
complicated to begin with.

To others: are there any reasons that we *need* to use alloc=0 to
indicate "please allocate this array for me" instead of array=NULL?
Would Fortran have problems with saying array=NULL?

- Jim