TC>> Well, turned out I found that using a static variable 
TC>> was the answer in one
TC>> case.  However, that static variable will take up 
TC>> "permanent" space of sorts.
TC>> It's not much, but it still is enough to bug me.
DM> 4 bytes?  Should never be a big deal.  I've used thousands of bytes of
DM> then it is a good thing.  Especially the first one.  :-)
DM>    - it makes your executable noticeably faster
DM>    - it makes your code cleaner,
Darin...
I don't know about you, or anybody else in this echo, but personally, I try 
to stay right away from dynamic memory allocation altogether.  If you are 
allocating/freeing many small and large blocks of memory continuously, 
eventually you may get to the point where there are NO blocks large enough to 
accomodate your request.
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