Towards Alias-Free Pointers
Naftaly H. Minsky
Department of Computer Science
Rutgers University
New Brunswick, NJ 08903 USA
minsky@cs.rutgers.edu
Abstract
This paper argues that pointer-induced aliasing can be avoided in many cases by
means of a concept of unique pointer. The use of such pointers is
expected to fortify the concept of encapsulation, to make systems easier to
reason about, to provide better control over the interaction between threads,
and to make storage management safer and more efficient.
We show that unique
pointers can be implemented by means of few minor and virtually costless
modifications in conventional OO languages, such as Eiffel or C++; and that
they can be used conveniently in a broad range of algorithms and data
structures.