pointer (redirected from Pointer (computing))

pointer, breed of large sporting dog developed in England more than 300 years ago. It stands between 23 and 26 in. (58.4–66.4 cm) high at the shoulder and weighs between 50 and 60 lb (22.7–27.2 kg). Its short, dense, shiny coat may be solid liver, black, yellow, or orange, or, more frequently, white with any of these colors as markings. The pointer is a scent hunter used for upland game birds. Having located its quarry, it stands rigidly poised with its body and nose facing the game, thus directing the hunter to it. Bred from crosses of foxhound, greyhound, and bloodhound with an early "setting" spaniel, the pointer was originally used to find and point hares, which were then chased and killed by greyhounds. With the rise in popularity of wing-shooting in the early 1700s, the pointer quickly became regarded as an expert gundog, a reputation it continues to enjoy today. The term pointer is also widely used to designate a dog of any breed that characteristically points its quarry. See dog.

---

pointer

German short-haired pointer

(credit: Sally Anne Thompson)

Dog breed, of hound, spaniel, and setter ancestry, first recorded c. 1650 in Great Britain and named for the dog's rigid posture in the direction of quarry. Pointers were originally used to point out hares and were later trained as bird dogs. The pointer stands 23–28 in. (58–71 cm) tall and weighs 50–75 lb (23–34 kg); it has a long muzzle, hanging ears, tapered tail, and a short, smooth coat, usually white with dark markings. The German short-haired pointer, another sporting breed, tracks, points, and retrieves; it is about the size of a pointer and has a short coat of solid liver colour or liver and gray-white.

---

(1) In database management, an address embedded within the data that specifies the location of data in another record or file.

(2) In programming, a variable that holds the address of another variable or the address of the beginning of an array of variables. When a pointer to an array is used, it is made to point to any element in the array by incrementing or decrementing its contents (incrementing or decrementing the address). See subscript.

(3) A symbol used to point to some element on screen. See cursor.

(4) See symbolic link and redirection.

---

1.	(programming)	pointer - An address, from the point of view of a programming language. A pointer may be typed, with its type indicating the type of data to which it points. The terms "pointer" and "reference" are generally interchangable although particular programming languages often differentiate these two in subtle ways. For example, Perl always calls them references, never pointers. Conversely, in C, "pointer" is used, although "a reference" is often used to denote the concept that a pointer implements. Anthony Hoare once said: Pointers are like jumps, leading wildly from one part of the data structure to another. Their introduction into high-level languages has been a step backward from which we may never recover. [C.A.R.Hoare "Hints on Programming Language Design", 1973, Prentice-Hall collection of essays and papers by Tony Hoare].
2.	(operating system)	pointer - (Or "mouse pointer") An icon, usually a small arrow, that moves on the screen in response to movement of a pointing device, typically a mouse. The pointer shows the user which object on the screen will be selected etc. when a mouse button is clicked.