but if they are not like c pointers they should have a different name. (and possible different syntax) the negative perception against pointers does not only exist in this crowd but amongst a lot of potential pike users who will look at pike, see "pointers", and turn away before they even had a chance to learn that these entities are really different.
and since someone brought up the similarity to c/c++ exactly because of such a similarity, same syntax expects similar/same behaviour. if the behaviour is really different, the syntax should be different too. (i am not sure in how many places pike violates this idea, but i'd like to keep it from increasing)
and because of the negative perception pointers have, the differences should be stressed here.
greetings, martin.