Demystifying computer programming: primitives and pointers
A lot of ordinary words have specialized meanings for computer programming, and as they become part of the technical jargon, they acquire a sheen of mystique, even if the specialized meaning is very close to the general meaning.
Take pointers, for example. In general parlance, a pointer is simply something that points in a given direction. In computer programming, a pointer is simply something that points at a particular address in memory. That’s very close to the general meaning.
To fully understand pointers, however, we first need to understand primitives. A primitive is a data type that a physical computer chip (like the Intel 80486) or a virtual computer chip — like the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) — is equipped with instructions to operate on.
For example, the 32-bit signed integer is a primitive in both the Intel 80486 and the JVM. Both of these have instructions for basic arithmetic on 32-bit signed integers.
A chip has no understanding of, for example, URLs, HTML pages, links, scrollbars and other concepts needed for you to read this article on your Web browser or on the Medium app. That understanding is provided by software like your Web browser or the Medium app.