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Pointer vs Pointerless - What's the difference?

pointer | pointerless |

As a noun pointer

is anything that points or is used for pointing.

As an adjective pointerless is

without the use of pointers.

pointer

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • Anything that points or is used for pointing.
  • A needle-like component of a timepiece or measuring device that indicates the time or the current reading of the device.
  • A breed of hunting dog.
  • (programming) A variable that holds the address of a memory location where a value can be stored.
  • (computing) An icon that indicates the position of the mouse; a cursor.
  • A tip, a bit of advice (usually plural.)
    • The instructor gave me some pointers on writing a good paper.
  • (in combinations) Something worth a given number of points.
    • a ten-pointer
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2011 , date=September 18 , author=Ben Dirs , title=Rugby World Cup 2011: England 41-10 Georgia , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=After another penalty miss, Kvirikashvili finally found the target on 27 minutes before Flood hit back with a three-pointer of his own.}}

    Synonyms

    * (sense, teacher's pointer) fescue * (of a timepiece) hand * (of a measuring device) needle * (icon) mouse pointer * (programming) reference

    See also

    * (programming) dereference, address

    Derived terms

    * null pointer * white pointer * dangling pointer

    See also

    * *

    Anagrams

    * ----

    pointerless

    English

    Adjective

    (-)
  • (computing, programming) Without the use of pointers.
  • * 1989 , Allen Kent, James G Williams, Rosalind Kent, Encyclopedia of Microcomputers: Volume 4
    • We will see, however, that the pointerless techniques are seldom satisfactory. Implementations of trees tend to be more complex than those of ordered lists.
  • * 1992 , Giorgio Gambosi, Michel O Scholl, Hans-Werner Six, Geographic database management systems: workshop proceedings, Capri, Italy
    • The list representation is a pointerless representation that facilitates sequential access but is inefficient for random access to specific image elements.
  • * 2003 , Ian Griffiths, Matthew Adams, .NET Windows forms in a nutshell (page 18)
    • But we can't use function pointers as we would in C++, and not just for the ideological reason that it doesn't enter into the spirit of the brave new pointerless world of the CLR.