Re: segfault w/ block, but not file scope

In article <slrnds3a4t.16s.random832@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Jordan Abel <random832@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>That's not "emulating pass by reference", that is passing by reference.
>The fact that the language doesn't have special syntax for it doesn't
>mean it's suddenly a different programming technique.

The phrase "programming technique" is a little bit slippery (in
much the same sense that an elephant is a little bit large :-) ).
C does not have garbage collection either, but you can "emulate"
it by replacing all operations of the form:

p = malloc(nbytes);
...
q = p;
...
q = r;
...
free(q);
...

with:

record_release(p); p = malloc(nbytes); record_ref(p);
...
record_release(q); q = p; record_ref(q);
...
record_release(q); q = r; record_ref(q);
...
record_release(q); free(q); q = NULL; /* for future record_release */

(make sure that p==NULL and q==NULL initially, of course).

If you do this, would you claim that C now "has" garbage collection?

You can emulate by-reference more easily than you can emulate
automatic garbage collection. Does the difficulty of emulation
play a role in deciding whether the language "has" the thing being
emulated?
--
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