What definition of sort makes this correct (and the poster you replied to incorrect) and what is your justification for the definition? Specifically, why does your definition vary from...
Oh, of course nobody wants this to turn into a 'witch-hunt,' as you so eloquently put it. There's nothing to hunt - it's completely obvious you were being a doofus.
Like anything else, the use of exceptions is fraught with debate and it's closer to a religious argument than it is to an objective cost-benefit analysis.
My two cents: I used to do this, but now I generally don't like to do this, because it breaks the RAII idiom that I've grown so fond of. Not only that, but it's almost always unneccesary.
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Hmmm.... when I wrote that, I disremembered myself into thinking that the structure only pads the end of the structure to stay aligned, but of course you're right - there's no guarantees.
Before you start researching implementation techniques, you need to know exactly what it is going to do, and exactly how you want people to use it. Otherwise, you're just yelling in the wind.
Your question is strange... As has been pointed out, a linked list by definition uses pointers - so what is it exactly that you're trying to accomplish and why?
