Q: I once used a compiler that wouldn't work unless NULL was used.
A: Unless the code being compiled was nonportable, that compiler was probably broken.
Perhaps the code used something like this nonportable version of an example from question 5.2:
execl("/bin/sh", "sh", "-c", "date", NULL); /* WRONG */
Under a compiler which defines NULL to ((void *)0)
(see question 5.6),
this code will happen to work.
[footnote]
However,
if pointers and integers have different sizes or representations,
the (equally incorrect) code
execl("/bin/sh", "sh", "-c", "date", 0); /* WRONG */
may not work.
Correct, portable code uses an explicit cast:
execl("/bin/sh", "sh", "-c", "date", (char *)NULL);
With the cast,
the code works correctly
no matter what the machine's integer and pointer representations are,
and no matter which form of null pointer constant
the compiler has chosen as the definition of NULL.
(The code fragment in question 5.2,
which used 0 instead of NULL,
is equally correct;
see also question 5.9.)
(In general, making decisions about a language based on the
behavior of one particular compiler is likely to be counterproductive.)
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