Proposed Resolution for Core Issue 73

The definition of comparing two pointers for equality is found in 5.10 ¶1: Pointers to objects or functions of the same type (after pointer conversions) can be compared for equality. Two pointers of the same type compare equal if and only if they are both null, both point to the same object or function, or both point one past the end of the same array. What does it mean for two pointers to " point to the same object? " At least three situations have been mentioned where the answer to this question is less than obvious. The first scenario that was raised is the case where storage allocation results in the " one-past-the-end " of an array having the same address as an object that is not part of the array. For instance, in the following code, if the implementation allocates no padding between arrays a and b, is it permissible for the function to return the value true? struct { int a[1]; int b[1]; } x; bool f() { return a+1 == b; } According to one interpretation of the wording above, the answer is " no " – the expression a+1 cannot be considered to " point to " b[0]. The second problem mentioned for the current wording is that void* pointers do not point to objects, so they either cannot be compared or can never compare equal. (There can be no objects of type void.) The third problem arises from the fact that different objects can occupy the same storage location at different times. For example,