[Vala] Fwd: What is the right syntax for defining pointers or references or "aliases" in Vala ?

[Serge Hulne <serge hulne gmail com>]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Serge Hulne <serge hulne gmail com>
Date: Mon, Jun 20, 2011 at 10:02 PM
Subject: Re: [Vala] What is the right syntax for defining pointers or
references or "aliases" in Vala ?
To: tecywiz121 <tecywiz121 hotmail com>


I am not sure. The following:

///
using Posix;

void main (string[] argv) {

   string a = "hello";
   string b = a;

   Posix.stdout.printf("a = %p\n", &a);
   Posix.stdout.printf("b = %p\n", &b);
}
///

yields :

a = 0x7fff5fbff890
b = 0x7fff5fbff880

Serge.


On Mon, Jun 20, 2011 at 9:55 PM, tecywiz121 <tecywiz121 hotmail com> wrote:
> On Mon, 2011-06-20 at 21:39 +0200, Serge Hulne wrote:
> > What is the Vala syntax to express that :
> >
> > b is a alias of a (or b points to the same address that a or b is a
> > reference to a).
> >
> > Is there a way to express this in vala or does *assignment always mean
> > memory allocation* in Vala.
>
> I'm not an expert, but I'm pretty sure that with classes, assignment
> means setting the variable to point to the object, and increasing the
> object's reference count.
>
> I'm not entirely sure what happens with structures though.
>
> > In other terms : How do you store references to variables (or pointers
> > to variables) in, say, a container (a libgee data structure) while
> > avoiding duplication of said data.
>
> Use the variables directly.
>
> > In C or C++ this would be done with pointers (or references).
>
> Most variables in vala are pointers to objects.
>
>
> Sam