• pewpew
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    1311 months ago

    Whats the difference between void fn(Type& var) and void fn(Type* var)?

    • @Tangent5280@lemmy.world
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      2911 months ago

      Sends original data vs making a copy of data and sending it.

      In meme context you’d be just making a copy of your consciousness and putting it in a machine. Whatever reason you’re doing it for - escape illness, survive armageddon, nothing changes for you. A copy of you lives on though.

      • MaggiWuerze
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        811 months ago

        I mean, just kill the host as soon as the upload is complete. at best you are not conscious during the process and when “you” wake up you are in the cloud. The version of you that awakes gets told that the “transfer” was complete.

    • @cbazero@programming.dev
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      811 months ago

      I guess you ask for C++. There Type* can be null while Type& can’t be null. When it gets compiled Type& is compiled (mostly) to the same machinecode as Type*.

    • @Valmond@lemmy.world
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      711 months ago

      You can pass nullptr in the second example (that is not what OP wrote though, hes second is making a copy).

      • pewpew
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        311 months ago

        Thanks, I was Just curious. I knew what * did but I wasn’t sure about &