🚀 go-pugleaf

Mitchell Laks wrote:
> I have a function with prototype something like
> 
>         findAndGetUint16Array (const Uint16*&)
> 
> (where Uint is just some 16 bit integer type). Now if I pass it a
> parameter initialized as
> 
>         Uint16 * p = NULL;
> 
> the compiler complains and doesnt compile my code: while, if instead I
> initialized p as 
> 
>         const Uint16 * p = NULL;
> 
> and pass it as a parameter the compilation and code works. 

This all is not specific to g++, follow-up set to acllc.
 
> Why is this?

The point is this:

Assume inside the function you have this code:

// constant integer
int const x = 42;
void function( int const*& p)
{
   // assign address of x to p
   p = &x;
}

void other_function()
{
   int* k;
   function(k);
   /** k now points to x but is not a pointer-to-const-int which means 
   you could now modify x although it was declared constant. */
}

Uli

-- 
Questions ?
see  C++-FAQ Lite: http://parashift.com/c++-faq-lite/  first !