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Non-static member functions (instance methods) have an implicit parameter (the this pointer) which is the pointer to the object it is operating on, so the type of the object must be included as part of the type of the function pointer. The method is then used on an object of that class by using one of the "pointer-to-member" operators: .* or ...
As such, the compiler must also generate "hidden" code in the constructors of each class to initialize a new object's virtual table pointer to the address of its class's virtual method table. Many compilers place the virtual table pointer as the last member of the object; other compilers place it as the first; portable source code works either ...
In some languages, a pointer can reference executable code, i.e., it can point to a function, method, or procedure. A function pointer will store the address of a function to be invoked. While this facility can be used to call functions dynamically, it is often a favorite technique of virus and other malicious software writers.
In computer science, pointer analysis, or points-to analysis, is a static code analysis technique that establishes which pointers, or heap references, can point to which variables, or storage locations. It is often a component of more complex analyses such as escape analysis. A closely related technique is shape analysis.
The C99 Language Specification ( ISO9899:1999 ) has the following warning in section 6.3.2.3 Pointers : "A pointer to an object or incomplete type may be converted to a pointer to a different object or incomplete type. If the resulting pointer is not correctly aligned for the pointed-to type, the behavior is undefined."
Tombstones are a mechanism to detect dangling pointers and mitigate the problems they can cause in computer programs. Dangling pointers can appear in certain computer programming languages, e.g. C, C++ and assembly languages. A tombstone is a structure that acts as an intermediary between a pointer and its target, often heap-dynamic data in memory.
No code invokes public methods on this. Code that can be reused internally (by invocation from other methods of the same class) is encapsulated in a protected or private method; if it needs to be exposed directly to the users as well, then a wrapper public method calls the internal method. The previous recommendation can be relaxed for pure ...
[9] [10] The code segment contains only code and the linkage section serves as a template for a new linkage segment. Pointer register 4 (PR4) points to the linkage segment of the procedure. A call to a procedure saves PR4 in the stack before loading it with a pointer to the callee's linkage segment.