6 Memory
This chapter covers
- What pointers are and why some are smart
- What the terms stack and heap mean
- How a program views its memory
This chapter provides you with some of the tacit knowledge held by systems programmers about how a computer’s memory operates. It aims to be the most accessible guide to pointers and memory management available. You will learn how applications interact with an operating system (OS). Programmers who understand these dynamics can use that knowledge to maximize their programs’ performance, while minimizing their memory footprint.
Memory is a shared resource, and the OS is an arbiter. To make its life easier, the OS lies to your program about how much memory is available and where it’s located. Revealing the ...
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