the.com/pointers
a variable that doesn't hold the value, just knows where the value lives.
means a pointer stores the memory address of another piece of data instead of the data itself.
from formalized in early languages like bcpl and c in the 1970s, letting programmers manipulate memory directly instead of through named variables alone; the term literally describes something that points at where the real thing sits.
null pointer costtony hoare called it his billion-dollar mistake
arithmetic allowedc lets you add integers to addresses directly
size is fixeda pointer is same size regardless of what it points to
rust's fixownership rules ban dangling pointers at compile time
for instance
c language — pointers are core to its entire memory model since 1972
null pointer exception — java's most common runtime crash, still, decades later
linked list — classic structure built entirely from nodes pointing to nodes
segmentation fault — the crash you get when a pointer wanders somewhere forbidden