Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!decwrl!decvax!eagle_snax!gpollice
From: gpollice@eagle_snax.UUCP ( Sun ECD Software)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Philosophical programming question: handles
Message-ID: <245@eagle_snax.UUCP>
Date: 11 Feb 88 13:59:40 GMT
Lines: 13
Keywords: handles, PARC

Actually, the concept of handles came from Xerox PARC many years ago.
A handle is exactly what it's name implies, something which is used to
grab onto something else.  If you make the assumption that a handle
is always a pointer to a pointer, you may get burned when someone else
uses a handle to hide information.  For example, I have worked with a
scanner for a compiler which encodes all information about the token
in a TokenHandle, which is just 32 bits of information.  If I tried to
use this as a pointer, my program would crash very quickly.
-- 
Gary F. Pollice          | Remember the Wang Institute!!
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