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Pointers Aren't Arrows. How C and C++ Actually Talk to Hardware.

Ask any software engineer to draw a pointer on a whiteboard. Within three seconds, they will sketch two boxes and a little curved arrow pointing between them. It looks neat. It feels intuitive.

  • Pointers are integers storing memory addresses, not arrows.
  • Memory is a continuous street of numbered byte lockers.
  • Pointer arithmetic moves by data type size, not single bytes.

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