* stream_to_pointer never returns NULL.

* This way no static variables are needed,
  unless the source is compiled with C++.

* This moves the check and conversion to lower case to the public
  interface and simplifies internals.

* This reverts r3646 and r3645.
* xrealloc/xmalloc are there for a reason:
** Every call to these functions does not check the return value of
   the memory allocation, hence error checking must be performed
   in the wrapper.
** This was historically done in the macros defined in dmemory.h,
   but redefining any identifier from the standard library to
   something which behaves differently is confusing.

merged trunk into cdi_conversion_c++ and changed type of len in function serializeStrTabGetSize() to int, removed anonymous function in serializeStrTabGetSize() and replaced it with &len