Re: Re[2]: Ada The Best Language?

["David Thompson" <david.thompson1@worldnet.att.net>]

Ted Dennison <dennison@telepath.com> wrote in message
news:fqj57.23735$Kf3.319906@www.newsranger.com...
...
> I'm sorry to answer for the troll you're chasing after, but the answer to that
> depends on what you consider a pointer. You can certianly make array-based
> objects in C without using dynamic allocation. However, every array in C is
> basicly a chunk of memory and a pointer with a preset "[]" operation for
> performing pointer math on it. In that sense, you can't even have an array in
C
> without using a pointer.

Nit:  in BCPL and B there was a real pointer for each array variable;
in C such a pointer is instead formed "on demand" -- when you
reference an array (except 2 special cases, 3 in C++) it is silently
converted to a pointer to the first element, often called "decay",
and subscripting [] is actually defined on this resulting pointer,
so yes you are "using" a pointer even though it wasn't stored.
And when you declare a function(subprogram) (formal)parameter
as an array, it actually declares a pointer instead, which can be
passed by-value from a decayed array, and used to access it.
(And subscripting is commutative!)

This evolution is described in Dennis Ritchie's ACM2HOPL paper,
also available on http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/who/dmr/

--
- David.Thompson 1 now at worldnet.att.net