

pun                         Definition                        pun




In the context of C, a pun occurs when a programmer uses one data
form interchangeably with another.  A pun most often occurs unin-
tentionally when  the programmer fails  to declare a  function as
returning a pointer; by default, what the function returns is as-
sumed to  be an  int, and  is handled as  such.  No  trouble will
arise if the program is run  on a machine that defines an int and
a  pointer to  have the  same length  (e.g., i8086  SMALL model);
however,  such code  cannot be transported  to an  environment in
which this is not the case (e.g., i8086 LARGE model).

***** See Also *****

definitions, pointer, portability











































COHERENT Lexicon                                           Page 1


