Programming languages characterised by their attitude towards pointers

2021-12-01

Lisp

Pointers? You want ’em, we got ’em! All the way, six ways ’til Sunday!
[Etc., etc.]

C

Pointer? What’s that? I bet it goes in the array hole.

Lambda Calculus

Thou Shalt Not Point!

(ML can point a little, as a treat)

SQL

You can have pointers, but only with explicit context.

APL

You can have pointers, but only with implicit context.

Brainfuck

Pointer? I hardly know ’er! canned laughter

Turing Machine

Pointer? Yeah, I’ve got one of those. No, I’ve never thought about more; why do you ask?

Assembly

Ah, I see you’ve chosen to interpret that particular word as a pointer. Excellent choice!