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- Path: sparky!uunet!oracle!unrepliable!bounce
- Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
- From: wkaufman@us.oracle.com (William Kaufman)
- Subject: Re: Pointer/address reluctance
- Message-ID: <1992Aug15.150436.25713@oracle.us.oracle.com>
- Sender: usenet@oracle.us.oracle.com (Oracle News Poster)
- Nntp-Posting-Host: hqsun2.us.oracle.com
- Organization: Oracle Corporation, Redwood Shores CA
- References: <l8kteaINNp2c@exodus.Eng.Sun.COM> <1992Aug14.173255.10548@wyvern.twuug.com> <l8ojbqINN900@exodus.Eng.Sun.COM>
- Date: Sat, 15 Aug 1992 15:04:36 GMT
- X-Disclaimer: This message was written by an unauthenticated user
- at Oracle Corporation. The opinions expressed are those
- of the user and not necessarily those of Oracle.
- Lines: 38
-
- In article <l8ojbqINN900@exodus.Eng.Sun.COM> linden@positive.Eng.Sun.COM (Peter van der Linden) writes:
- ] I take the point that some folks like to distinguish
- ] between pointers and addresses because of unusual hardware
- ] that may include capability or offset bits.
- ]
- ] However, Joe put his finger on the nub of this by pointing
- ] out (heh!) that we may simply expand our informal concept
-
- Well, let's say you've just bought the new Baron Samadi 2000
- computer, the first machine to run strictly on voodoo. Since pointers
- are simply references to the original object,
-
- person *prez = George_Bush;
-
- may be implemented as a voodoo doll of Bush. And C should support such
- a machine.
-
- resign(prez);
- prez = Dan_Quayle;
-
- Bus error,...world dumped.
-
- More seriously, the reason *I* avoid it is because there's always
- someone out there who thinks that all memory is byte addressable, and
- therefore, all pointers are integers representing a byte index into
- memory. They come up with things like storing a pointer in an int, and
- using pointers to different types interchangeably.
-
- On a weekly basis, I see utter confusion pass over peoples' faces
- when I tell them, That's not true! (It certainly happens here often
- enough,...) It's just so much easier to imagine pointers as sheer
- magic, and treat them with the reverence they deserve.
-
- -- Bill K.
-
- Bill Kaufman, | "Hush my darling / Be still my darling /
- Corporate Lackey | The lion's on the phone,..."
- wkaufman@us.oracle.com | -- "The Guitar", They Might Be Giants
-