pointers

[arpanmukherjee1]

hi there

can sb tell me how to use near and far pointers in c/c++

[chandru.in]

Standard C really has no such thing. It is an addition done in compilers targeting 8086 CPUs. There really is little need to use it today unless you are using dinosaur C compilers like Turbo C/C++.

Near pointers - Pointers to memory within same segment and thus has only offset.
Far pointers - Pointers to memory within another segment and thus contains both segment selector and offset.

[Chetan1991]

Hey chandru do you mean pointers are obslete nowadays??
I have the book "Let us C" 5th ed. and the author seems to emphasise a lot on pointers as if they are very important. So wh did he stressed so much if they are obselete???

[QwertyManiac]

He meant the near and far pointer concepts are obsolete now. Pointers are essential, and will never be removed from C/C++.

[chandru.in]

Exactly. I meant only about the idea of near and far pointers. Pointers themselves will no become obsolete any time soon.

[Chetan1991]

what are near and far pointers??

[chandru.in]

^^ See my first reply.

[gopi_vbboy]

u don't generally use near and far pointers in c++.

[dheeraj_kumar]

Near uses 2 bytes, and Far uses 5 bytes, AFAIK.

[red_devil]

^^ i'm not very sure of that !!

btw what kind of programs make use of the near n far ptrs ?? i've never made any use of those stuff

[lucifer_is_back]

Originally Posted by n6300

^^ i'm not very sure of that !!

btw what kind of programs make use of the near n far ptrs ?? i've never made any use of those stuff

now a days we dont use these types of pointers much
they were used earlier
if you want to read more about them
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Far_pointer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_memory_model