Quoting Gene Heskett (ghesk...@wdtv.com): > > > On Friday 10 April 2015 10:28:24 Alexis wrote: > > Having said that, one thing i always felt was sorely lacking in > > K&R was a more thorough description of pointers. However, i feel > > that issue has now been addressed by Richard Reese's excellent > > "Understanding and Using C Pointers":
My goodness, I just googled it, clicked on a link, and found I had downloaded a copy! Published 2013. Where do they make their money? (And do I call it the "Piping Crow Book" or will "Crow Book" do?) > That has never been a problem once you understand that a pointer, even to > a 3 or 4 dimmensional array of data, is nothing more, nor less, than the > address in memory of the first element of that array. ALL other offsets > to other elements in that array are calculated, sometimes in the code > issued by the compiler, or occasionally in issueing the code to > calculate it on the fly. Not often done as its a huge speed hit when it > does that. Sigh. You only have to read the first two paragraphs of the reference for a contradiction of this: "A solid understanding of pointers and the ability to effectively use them separates a novice C programmer from a more experienced one. Pointers pervade the language and provide much of its flexibility. They provide important support for dynamic memory allocation, are closely tied to array notation, and, when used to point to functions, add another dimension to flow control in a program. "Pointers have long been a stumbling block in learning C. The basic concept of a pointer is simple: it is a variable that stores the address of a memory location. The concept, however, quickly becomes complicated when we start applying pointer operators and try to discern their often cryptic notations. But this does not have to be the case. If we start simple and establish a firm foundation, then the advanced uses of pointers are not hard to follow and apply." Cheers, David. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/20150411030114.gb16...@alum.home
