Casting error while initializing pointers

[AmdlSpace]

Using SDCC compiler for a C51 simple application,
for the following two lines variable declarations:

unsigned int  address;
unsigned char * mem_ptr;

I've got the compilation error "127" for the following  instruction line:

mem_ptr =  (unsigned char * )address;

The error "127" maps to:
"non-pointer type cast to generic pointer from type 'unsigned-int to type unsigned-char generic*"

NOW THE QUESTION: is there anybody of you who can kindly suggest me an alternative and compilable way to initialize the "mem_ptr" pointer variable with the content of the "address" one?

Thank you in advance!

[Raphael Neider]

In which memory space is the object pointed to by address in?

Use
1. mem_ptr = (__data unsigned char *) address;
2. mem_ptr = (__xdata unsigned char *) address;
3. mem_ptr = (__code unsigned char *) address;
4. ...

or (untested) declare mem_ptr as a pointer to one of these spaces, like
1. __data unsigned char *mem_ptr;
2. __xdata unsigned char *mem_ptr;
3. __code unsigned char *mem_ptr;
4. ...

Otherwise SDCC would have to guess the memory space and its according TAG (most significant bits ot the generic pointer's value).

HTH,
Raphael