Modifying Class Object

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Sat, 13 Feb 2010 23:45:47 -0800, Steve Howell wrote:

> The term "pointer" is very abstract.  Please give me a concrete
> definition of a pointer.

A programming language data type whose value directly specifies (or 
"points to") another value which is stored elsewhere in the computer 
memory.

I quote from Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointer_(computing)

    [quote]
    A pointer is a simple, less abstracted implementation of the 
    more abstracted reference data type
    [end quote]

And later:

    [quote]
    While "pointer" has been used to refer to references in 
    general, it more properly applies to data structures whose 
    interface explicitly allows the pointer to be manipulated
    (arithmetically via pointer arithmetic) as a memory 
    address...
    [end quote]

And again:

    [quote]
    A memory pointer (or just pointer) is a primitive, the value 
    of which is intended to be used as a memory address; it is said 
    that a pointer points to a memory address. It is also said that
    a pointer points to a datum [in memory] when the pointer's value
    is the datum's memory address.

    More generally, a pointer is a kind of reference, and it is said 
    that a pointer references a datum stored somewhere in memory; to
    obtain that datum is to dereference the pointer. The feature that
    separates pointers from other kinds of reference is that a 
    pointer's value is meant to be interpreted as a memory address, 
    which is a rather 'low-level' concept.
    [end quote]


> A curly brace is one of these: { }
> 
> Pretty concrete, I hope.

But { and } are glyphs in some typeface. Chances are that what you see, 
and what I see, are quite different, and whatever pixels we see, the 
compiler sees something radically different: two abstract characters 
implemented in some concrete fashion, but that concrete fashion is a mere 
implementation detail. They could be implemented as bytes x7b and x7d, or 
as four-byte sequences x0000007b and x0000007d for UTF-32, or who knows 
what in some other system. So the *concrete* representation of the curly 
brace varies according to the system.

>From that, it's not a difficult leap to say that Pascal's BEGIN and END 
key words are mere alternate spellings of the abstract "open curly brace" 
and "close curly brace" with different concrete representations, and from 
that it's a small step to say that the INDENT and DEDENT tokens seen by 
the Python compiler (but absent from Python source code!) are too.


>> But reference also has a concrete meaning: C++ has a type explicitly
>> called "reference":
>>
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reference_(C++)
>>
>>
> Of course, "reference" has concrete meanings in specific contexts. But I
> can refer you to much more general and abstract uses of the term
> "reference."  Do you want references?   I will be happy to refer you to
> appropriate references.

I know that reference can also be used in the abstract. I'm just warning 
that it can also be used in the concrete, and so we need to be wary of 
misunderstandings and confusions.


>> And of course call-by-reference (or pass-by-reference) has a specific,
>> technical meaning.
>>
>>
> Which is what?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evaluation_strategy#Call_by_reference



-- 
Steven