Re: breakpoint for accessing memory location

Erik Leunissen
2006-10-22T09:11:14Z

Eli Zaretskii wrote:
>
> Well, yes, but how far should we go in explaining the semantics of
> programming languages? I mean, isn't it common knowledge that the
> name of a variable stands for its value? When the manual says ``the
> value of a variable'', what could the reader possibly think of except
> the variable's name?
>

True, if C is the sole perspective. If so please disregard.

My remark stems from experience with dynamic programming languages. In
that area, separate methods exist to programmatically refer to the name
of a variable and to its value (Tcl example appended).

So, it depends on your background I suppose. And mine may be odd. Also,
it may be ineffective to consider from where people may enter the
debugging arena (or C arena). I leave this entirely to your judgement.

Regardless, I'm already very pleased with the explanation as it is now.

Thanks,

Erik
====

Interactive Tcl example (I guess Python and Perl show similar behaviour):

% set variableName 34
34
% puts $variableName
34
% puts variableName
variableName

== end of post ==