[fpc-pascal] initializing pointer values

[Michael Van Canneyt]

On Fri, 16 Dec 2011, dhkblaszyk at zeelandnet.nl wrote:

> 
> On implementing a linked list I hit to some unexpected (doesn't mean incorrect though) behaviour.
> 
>  
> 
>   ptest = ^test;
>   test = record
>     p: pointer;
>   end;
> 
>  
> 
>   new(mytest);
> 
>  
> 
> When I allocate "mytest" the pointer variable "p" is initialized as $ffffffff instead of nil as I did suspect. In my code though I am
> relying on the fact that new pointers are indeed nil so I can allocate them accordingly. How can I force and rely on the fact that
> p is always nil? What is the correct procedure here?

Newly allocated memory is never zeroed out. You must do this manually with FillChar or FillWord.
This is only done automatically for class instances.

I will add a note to the docs.

Michael.