-> and :: operators

[Jonathan M Davis via Digitalmars-d]

On Friday, 9 October 2015 at 23:57:28 UTC, Jeremy DeHaan wrote:
> On Friday, 9 October 2015 at 21:21:10 UTC, deadalnix wrote:
>> On Friday, 9 October 2015 at 19:54:19 UTC, Jeremy DeHaan wrote:
>>> On Friday, 9 October 2015 at 18:44:50 UTC, Freddy wrote:
>>>> On Friday, 9 October 2015 at 04:15:42 UTC, Ali Çehreli wrote:
>>>>> [...]
>>>>
>>>> Stole from D? You mean java right?
>>>
>>> Java doesn't have pointers.
>>
>> -_-
>>
>> Yeah reference are definitively not pointer. No they aren't. 
>> No I told you they aren't. Nope. Not even a little ! No way ! 
>> That's not true ! I told you that's not true. Nope !
>
> I guess you could argue it that way, but I don't see references 
> and pointers as the same. Similar, yes, but not the same.

Java references (as well as C# references and D references) are 
managed pointers. Their only real differences from "normal" 
pointers are that they're managed by the GC, you can't assign an 
address to them (except by assigning another reference to them), 
and that you can't dereference them except when accessing one of 
their members. There's no question that per the computer science 
definition of a pointer, they qualify. They just aren't quite 
what you get in C/C++ or from D's pointers which aren't class 
references.


- Jonathan M Davis