Darren New wrote:
Errr, no. Python, Java, Javascript and Ruby all have pointers. Probably erlang as well, but I don't know that one yet, and possibly Perl for some meaning of the word "pointer". Not Haskell or Tcl, because they're both value-only languages, in essence.
They have references. Which are similar to pointers but you can't do pointer math on them. That makes all the difference it seems.
I don't understand the confusion over pointers. I took the data structures class, made linked lists. doubly linked lists, queues, stacks, hash tables, etc. etc. It wasn't really a big deal.
Recursion I recall having issues with. I could never see where one would actually use it except in the highly contrived fibonacci or factorial examples that we were shown. It wasn't until I read "The Little Schemer" and watched the SICP lecture videos that I understood the relationship between iteration and recursion and how recursion can be used to walk trees and many other useful things. I attribute this to very half-hearted attempts to teach recursion back in my school days.
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