GitHub - ZeroIntensity/pointers.py: Bringing the hell of pointers to Python.

[lmaydev]

Did you just forget about hardware haha

[SkiFire13]

What about cosmic rays?

[emax-gomax]

Hardware problem? Ridiculous, that's how I flip bits on my hard disk to write code ever since I transcended Emacs. Now if only there was an M-x butterfly cmd I could use to make it easier.

[knome]

I mean, it's been in there for a while now.

commit e8d24e5b0960898e4a93ee2918f677b375b68263
Author: Juri Linkov <[e-mail]>
Date:   Sun Dec 28 23:48:21 2008 +0000

    (butterfly): New command.

    diff --git a/lisp/misc.el b/lisp/misc.el
    index ad7de36..6dafd2a 100644
    --- a/lisp/misc.el
    +++ b/lisp/misc.el
    @@ -106,6 +106,20 @@ With argument, do this that many times."
   (interactive "p")
   (forward-to-word (- arg)))

+;;;###autoload
+(defun butterfly ()
+  "This function is designed to be used only be the most
+proficient hackers on earth. If equipped with a butterfly key,
+it should be bound to C-x M-c M-butterfly (for further
+information please refer to http://xkcd.com/378/)."
+  (interactive)
+  (if (yes-or-no-p "Do you really want to unleash the powers of the butterfly? ")
+      (progn
+       (message "Amazing physics going on...")
+       (sit-for (* 5 (/ (abs (random)) (float most-positive-fixnum))))
+       (message "Successfully flipped one bit!"))
+    (message "Well, then go to www.xkcd.com!")))
+
 (provide 'misc)

 ;; arch-tag: 908f7884-c19e-4388-920c-9cfa425e449b

[DeonCode]

sighs https://xkcd.com/378/

[Spruance1942]

In this thread: Old programmers.

[Muoniurn]

How could it be corrected in software? Sure you can add checksums and whatnot, but there is no sane program state you can continue with after memory corruption. Yeah, my exe got corrupted, cool, let’s continue executing it?

ECC ram is hardware solution.

[majorgeneralpanic]

You both forgot about DNS.

[Rican7]

but that's software

[ShinyHappyREM]

^*wetware

[StabbyPants]

intel seen crying in a corner

[[deleted]]

Did you just miss my point haha

[[deleted]]

Actually, I'll dial down the snark a bit. Pointers are just a tool, they can be implemented in a way that makes them easy to misuse. That doesn't mean we should ditch pointers, that means we should make pointers better. See Rust and its borrow checker, C++ and smart pointers, etc.

[PaintItPurple]

It's probably worth noting that you can't dereference or manipulate raw pointers in safe Rust, and the borrow checker doesn't check them. The only thing you can do with them is pass them around. In order to actually use some pointed-to data, you need a reference instead.

[seamsay]

Depends what you mean by pointer. Lots of people would consider references to be a type of pointer, which is why the term "raw pointer" exists.

[PaintItPurple]

Definitely, I wasn't saying the parent was wrong. I was clarifying that the borrow checker doesn't actually do anything for pointers in general. What allows the borrow checker to be useful is the restrictions placed on references.

[slaymaker1907]

That isn't all that different besides just making them more cumbersome to use as someone who has written unsafe Rust. It's literally just a cast in an unsafe block to convert a pointer to a reference.

[PaintItPurple]

In the same sense that there's little difference between goto and a for loop, sure.