Why pointers

Recently I’m messing around with historical code in my lab, written in c++. Dealing with pointers is inevitable. As I’m not a c++ native,pointers give me some trouble.

Then I run into this post, which explains all those gimmicks behind the widely abused used pointers. Good read.

The basic idea behind pointer is simple: a variable that stores the address of another variable.

But when pointers were used to implement features which c lack, pointers quickly became a nightmare to haunt innocent young programmers like me.

I’ve also noticed a trend in SO, regarding the same problem in different language, c/c++ programmers do like re-inventing the wheels:

in C/C++: “how do I do dis”

• **20 lines code snippet, implementing the solution from scratch.

in R/python/whatever: “How do I do dat”

• **recommend packages/other people’s work that actually do the job.

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Oh, and I also learned to use makefile.