module confusion

[Lawrence D'Oliveiro]

In message <slrnfg9ru0.1lk.horpner at FIAD06.norwich.edu>, Neil Cerutti wrote:

> On 2007-10-03, Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo at geek-central.gen.new_zealand>
> wrote:
>> In message <874ph8sdhx.fsf at benfinney.id.au>, Ben Finney wrote:
>>
>>> Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo at geek-central.gen.new_zealand> writes:
>>> 
>>>> On my Gentoo system:
>>>> 
>>>>     >>> import os
>>>>     >>> os.path
>>>>     <module 'posixpath' from '/usr/lib64/python2.5/posixpath.pyc'>
>>>> 
>>>> It's just a variable that happens to point to the posixpath module.
>>> 
>>> There's no "pointing" going on. It's another name bound to the
>>> same object, of equal status to the 'posixpath' name.
>>> 
>>> Python doesn't have pointers, and even "variable" is a
>>> misleading term in Python. Best to stick to "name" and "bound
>>> to".
>>
>> In Python, all names _are_ variables. They are not "bound" to
>> objects. The value of os.path is a pointer. It's implemented as
>> a pointer, it has all the semantics of a pointer.
> 
> No. A pointer is also an iterator.
> 
> void duplicate(char *d, const char *s)
> {
>   while (*d++ = *s++)
>     ;
> }

So if you can't do pointer arithmetic, then it's not a pointer? Trying this:

    void duplicate(void *d, const void *s)
    {
      while (*d++ = *s++)
        ;
    }

I get:

    test.c: In function 'duplicate':
    test.c:3: warning: dereferencing 'void *' pointer
    test.c:3: warning: dereferencing 'void *' pointer
    test.c:3: error: invalid use of void expression

So you can't do arithmetic or iterate with a void * pointer. Does that mean
it's not really a pointer?