On Mon, 08 Feb 2010 03:21:11 +0100, Alf P. Steinbach wrote: >> A pointer tells you where something is; a reference doesn't. > > Sorry, I don't know of any relevant terminology where that is the case.
Taken from Wikipedia: "A pointer is a simple, less abstracted implementation of the more abstracted reference data type (although it is not as directly usable as a C++ reference)." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointer_(computing) In other words, a pointer is a specific type of reference. A reference in turn is an opaque but low-level data type which "refers to" in some way to the data you actually care about. (C++ has a concrete reference type, which is not to be confused with abstract references.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reference_(computer_science) Unless otherwise stated, references are opaque and coders need not care how the reference mechanism is implemented, see e.g.: http://www.cocoabuilder.com/archive/cocoa/20777-opaque-reference.html In Python you don't use references directly, there is no reference type or object. You can simulate the semantics of references (but not pointers) by putting your object in a list and passing the list around. -- Steven -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
