[PD-dev] anyone understand the t_symbol** type punning in expr?

In extra/expr~/vexp.c and extra/expr~/vexp_if.c there is this construct:

char *tmp; tmp = eptr->ex_ptr; if (ex_getsym(tmp, (t_symbol **)&(eptr->ex_ptr))) {

The function there looks like a wrapper to gensym() more or less:

typedef t_symbol *fts_symbol_t; int ex_getsym(char *p, fts_symbol_t *s) { *s = gensym(p); return (0); }

ex_ptr is defined as a char* in the ex_cont struct that eptr is. This is the last type-punning in extra/ Anyone have any idea how to fix it so its not type-punning? I can't even understand what the code is doing, it looks like its generating a symbol but then storing the t_symbol* in a char*, which is just strange.

.hc