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From: Keith Thompson <Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Threads across programming languages
Date: Sat, 18 May 2024 12:26:31 -0700
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Tim Rentsch <tr.17687@z991.linuxsc.com> writes:
[...]
> First, a pointer is not an object.  In both C and C++, any pointer,
> including a function pointer, is a scalar value.  A pointer value
> might be held in an object but it doesn't have to be.  In most cases
> function pointers are not stored in objects but simply used to call
> the function pointed to.
[...]

Certainly a pointer value is not an object.  Certainly a pointer object
*is* an object.  It's not uncommon to informally refer to a pointer
object as "a pointer".  I presume you would consider such usage to be
incorrect, and I don't disagree, but it is fairly common.

I often find it useful to avoid referring to "pointers", and instead
refer to "pointer types", "pointer values", "pointer objects", and so
on (likewise for arrays).

The C standard does not, as far as I can tell, provide a definition for
the standalone term "pointer".  (I could have missed something; I
checked section 3, "Terms, definitions, and symbols", and the index.)
But the standard does, in several places, use the term "pointer" to
refer to a pointer value.  I don't know whether it's consistent.

-- 
Keith Thompson (The_Other_Keith) Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com
void Void(void) { Void(); } /* The recursive call of the void */