* Steven D'Aprano:
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.
Yes, sort of.
The last paragraph however confuses two different meanings of "reference".
So when using terms such as "reference" it helps to refer :-) to some specific
terminology, unless that's clearly understood from context.
Cheers,
- Alf
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