-NOTES
-
- This function uses xmalloc() which is expected to be a front end
- function to malloc() that deals with low memory situations. In
- typical use, if malloc() returns NULL then xmalloc() diverts to an
- error handler routine which never returns, and thus xmalloc will
- never return a NULL pointer. If the client application wishes to
- deal with low memory situations itself, it should supply an xmalloc
- that just directly invokes malloc and blindly returns whatever
- malloc returns.
-