Re: Promoting weak pointers

Michiel Helvensteijn <m.helvensteijn@gmail.com>
Tue, 16 Jun 2009 04:39:12 -0700 (PDT)

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From: Michiel Helvensteijn <m.helvensteijn@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: comp.compilers
Date: Tue, 16 Jun 2009 04:39:12 -0700 (PDT)
Organization: Compilers Central
References: 09-06-047 09-06-053
Keywords: linker
Posted-Date: 17 Jun 2009 03:35:51 EDT

On Jun 15, 8:20 pm, Scott Burson <fset....@gmail.com> wrote:


> I wasn't in on the previous discussion, but if I had been, I would
> have said this:
>
> The term "weak pointer" is a misnomer. Weakness is not a property of
> pointers, but rather of locations that hold pointers. It really would
> be better to say "weak location".
>
> So you don't "promote a weak pointer to a strong pointer"; you read
> the contents of a weak location, which can contain either a pointer or
> null.


I'm not sure I understand what you mean. Do you mean conceptually, or
are you talking about an implementation of strong/weak pointers? Note
that I am *not* talking about pointers from the C(++) language, with a
strong/weak wrapper. I'm talking about pointers in a new language we
are designing. In this language, the pointers *are* either strong or
weak.


If you were speaking conceptually (meaning it is relevant for us), I
would like for you to clarify.


Thanks!


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