🚀 go-pugleaf

This whole discussion of pointers (REFs) seems too concerned with the
wrong things to me (but then, I'm more concerned with semantics; people
worried about efficiency can hit "n" now).

Given an arbitrary domain, e.g. sets of integers, it is always
possible to introduce a monadic operation f that extends that
domain.  So, given a value such as {1,3,4}, we can apply f to
it to obtain a new value f{1,3,4}; and we can apply f to that
new value to obtain f(f{1,3,4}).  We also introduce an inverse
operation f' such that f'(f(x)) = x.  [Obviously, one might
spell f as REF, and f' as DEREF or whatever.]

The question is, why bother?  Forget about machine addresses and
locations and pointers right now; the point is that introducing
such an additional operation complicates the domain, and I can't
see any redeeming social value in so doing (at least that has been
presented yet).  But then, I prefer programs to be as simple as
possible...
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 Chris.Holt@newcastle.ac.uk      Computing Lab, U of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
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 "He either fears his fate too much, or his programming tools are small..."