I am honored to have shared a bug with Rob Pike. On Mon, Jan 7, 2019 at 3:36 PM Rob Pike <r...@golang.org> wrote:
> I think every Fortran programmer has a version of that story. Mine > involved the number 3. > > -rob > > > On Mon, Jan 7, 2019 at 8:01 AM Michael Jones <michael.jo...@gmail.com> > wrote: > >> My hardest-to-debug ever bug was because of this. >> >> Because FORTRAN is pass by reference, the compiler must do something >> special for the four in "SQRT(4.0)" -- and the PDP-10 (TOPS-10) FORTRAN >> compiler used a global literal table for this. I had a function that >> modified an argument, erroneously passed a literal number in, the compiler >> housed the number (may have been a 2) in the the gkobal table, and after >> that, all the "2" arguments in my program were invisibly changed. >> >> I was 16 or 17, was an explorer scout at BTL, and was quick to embrace >> 6th edition UNIX and ed over TOPS-10 and TECO (ignoring the brilliantly >> named SOS, "son of stopgap") >> >> On Sun, Jan 6, 2019 at 12:15 PM Rob Pike <r...@golang.org> wrote: >> >>> Fortran depends heavily on pointers for its semantics: It is a call by >>> reference language. You just don't see them explicit in the language and >>> you have no control over whether an argument will be modified by a >>> procedure. >>> >>> -rob >>> >>> >>> On Mon, Jan 7, 2019 at 5:13 AM Victor Giordano <vitucho3...@gmail.com> >>> wrote: >>> >>>> i guess that a good question to start is there is a language that >>>> doesn't relays on pointer. Fortran as someone says below, may be a good >>>> example how things get done using values only. I programmed in COBOL in the >>>> universitiy and don't recall to use pointers. There aren't necessary at >>>> all, nevertheless they provide inderection or referrals that allow to >>>> express things more efficiently in certain scenarios. You could write an >>>> entire program witout using pointers,i guess, that call is in the cook >>>> chief!. >>>> Nice topic to talk. >>>> >>>> >>>> El martes, 1 de enero de 2019, 8:34:34 (UTC-3), 伊藤和也 escribió: >>>>> >>>>> What are the reasonable reasons to use pointers? Are pointers >>>>> neseccary? >>>>> >>>> -- >>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>>> Groups "golang-nuts" group. >>>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send >>>> an email to golang-nuts+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. >>>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >>>> >>> -- >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>> Groups "golang-nuts" group. >>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send >>> an email to golang-nuts+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. >>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >>> >> >> >> -- >> >> *Michael T. jonesmichael.jo...@gmail.com <michael.jo...@gmail.com>* >> > -- *Michael T. jonesmichael.jo...@gmail.com <michael.jo...@gmail.com>* -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "golang-nuts" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to golang-nuts+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
