Embedded software article: pointers and addresses

My latest article at embedded.com has been published:

Pointers and addresses – a programming minefield

Pointers are a very powerful feature of the C language. In a programming language, power is dangerous, as programmer error can have dire consequences. As a result, many developers favor languages, like Java, which do not support pointers and are, hence, “safer”. However, the power of pointers is valued by embedded developers, who accept that they need to understand their subtle nuances. This article looks at the potential issues with pointers and proposes some guidelines to avoiding problems.

I wrote this article because pointers are so important to embedded developers that a clear understanding is absolutely essential. My goal is to simply clarify some of the details that are not of concern to desktop application programmers.