I miss my pointers [modified]

[User of Users Group]

This is more of a result of bad design on the part of C# team, range concepts, decent iterators, and reverse 'enumeration' are the most glaring and obvious, put mildly, screw-ups while they were copying Java. You have to resort to all sort of things such as copying, messy yield compiler generation, and it still ends up insufficient. You can always do the pointer arithmetic as part of class (as that's all you get:-) : You can mark the variable or method 'unsafe'and then use 'fixed', you can go further but it is usually best practice not to let it leak out beyond a type, modern C++ libraries do that pretty good. unsafe fixed int _d[SOME_DOLLARS]; unsafe public double this[int index] get { fixed (int* d = _d ) return d[index]; } Before someone screams, as they probably missed the fact that there is plenty of it done in all or any decent scientific and engineering .NET commercial libraries known to man, including the oldest and best graphics library for CLR too. The disclaimer: Comparing perf between this, for, or foreach, or LINQ won't tell you the entire story as it will vary dramatically for 'non-classics', ie. specific scenario.. And jitted IL pointer code can surprise overall, but if you ask C# people: "It (re:everything) is not a CSharp idiom". I wonder what is, just the language name? Ah.. Still doesn't solve your problem as you want a pair, with a second as end iterator really.

[Daniel Grunwald]

You could go low-level and use unsafe code (pointers just like in C), or you could go higher-level and use an ArrayList, where you have the GetRange() method that returns a 'view' on a range of elements - modifications in that view will affect the underlying ArrayList. However, for some reason Microsoft doesn't support that feature in the generic List<T> - in the generic List, GetRange just returns a shallow copy. You'll have to use a library (e.g. C5[^]) if you want sane collections for C#. (or just create your own collection class to represent a part of an array)

[leppie]

Chris Maunder wrote:

how do a &(array[i]) in C#?

Assuming you have a struct array, you can do 'ref array[i]' where the method sig is foo(ref mystruct s).

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[leppie]

The way you are looking up data seems more suited towards using a LinkedList (or using LINQ with IEnumerable<T> ).

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[DaveX86]

I never liked pointers...I have a mental block about them...every time I see a '*' or an '&' before something I break out in a cold sweat. It was a piece of mercy that the C# team put them behind the curtain where they belong :sigh: :)

[Perspx]

I think they're useful at times, but pointer arithmetic can become a bit of a drag. But as you say it was cleary a benefit for C# to do away with them, except for in certain circumstances. Regards, --Persxp

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[Chris Losinger]

you have to wait for C# v5.0

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[Lutoslaw]

LINQ simulates it somehow. You can call a Skip(i) method and it will return an IEnumerable which starts at the specified index.

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[Jim Crafton]

Is that the new C++ 98 release?

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[El Corazon]

Jim Crafton wrote:

Is that the new C++ 98 release?

It's okay, they've a plan to have all of C++2009 in place in C# by 2025. So they will eventually catch up. ;) (just don't plot the future graph of that)

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[Mladen Jankovic]

Obviously you missed this one: Please do not post programming questions here. If you have a programming question then click here[^]!. ;)

[Genetic Algorithm Library]

[elektrowolf]

A SkipIterator (internal, System.Core.dll) is created.. You can look at it in Reflector.

[Pete OHanlon]

I'm not sure it is missing the point. While I agree that C# isn't terribly efficient with regards to pointers (read not efficient there at all) it does have it's uses. To get LOB apps out the door in double quick time, .NET is very hard to beat. Before you get all bent out of shape, you should remember that my background is C/C++, so there's a load of features I'd love to see make the crossover, the simple fact is they are targetting two different types of applications. Bottom line - .NET is quicker to code, but C++ code is quicker to run.

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[Lutoslaw]

elektrowolf wrote:

A SkipIterator (internal, System.Core.dll) is created.. You can look at it in Reflector.

Oh really? I was so sure that it creates a PointerIterator. What a suprise! :laugh:

Greetings - Gajatko Portable.NET is part of DotGNU, a project to build a complete Free Software replacement for .NET - a system that truly belongs to the developers.

[Roger Wright]

There's a 12-step program to help people who miss their pointers. I'd give you a contact, but I've misplaced the address and can't remember where I stored it. I'll get back to you when I run across a reference to it.

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modified on Sunday, November 16, 2008 12:50 AM

[Chris Maunder]

Roger Wright wrote:

I'll get back to you when I run across a reference to it

Oh that's bad. That's really bad.

cheers, Chris Maunder

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[Gary R Wheeler]

I do believe our English members would use the phrase "cheeky bastard" here. :laugh:

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