Representation
A pointer of type Pointer<T> is represented as
follows:
- The handle, i.e. the pointer itself, is either null or refers to
a memory block in the heap.
- The memory block in the heap may hold any T object.
The memory block is prefixed by one word that holds the size of the block.
The size of the memory block is thus the sum of the sizes of one integer word
and of a T object. The size of Pointer<T> is
the pointer size of the machine.
Author: Wolfgang Schreiner
Last Modification: April 12, 1997
