Question

struct node 
{ 
    void *data; 
    struct node *link;    
}; 

Given such a structure we call it as generic linked list.what is the use of such a list in terms of its real time application use.

Answer 1

You have a service which accepts requests from multiple applications and provides handle to each of them. The service can maintain the contexts per request in a linked list and when its done serving them delete the node from the list. A empty linked list in that case would mean no application has registered to the service.

For Eg, Consider the service built over SIP stack and multiple applications like IM, Presence information can register with the service which uses the SIP stack for signalling. Now the service maintains the data pertaining to each of the application in a linked list(well that is again a question of design but lets assume we have a limit to serve 5 applications). The SIP response has to be redirected to the application sending the request and say you hold the callback pointer as one value of the node it is simple to call it once you find the corresponding node for the response.

Each node saves lot of information about every application and uses it for sending back the response to the application.

Probably you may want to have a look at this.