> I'm not sure what you are saying here -- the very notion of pointers do not exist in Java. This decision was made while creating the language, and avoids an entire class of programming errors. Java is strictly pass by value.
To clarify: the GP is probably referring to boxed and unboxed data types. IIRC, Java has some unboxed data types ("primitive" types?), but mostly everything is boxed behind a pointer.
> but mostly everything is boxed behind a pointer.
Behind a Reference would be more accurate. It's just a reference to a spot in the heap. Other than similarly "pointing" to a place in memory, the comparison between Java References and C Pointers stops there. One cannot pass a "pointer" in Java, nor can the pointer be free-form manipulated like in pointer-arithmetic.
My statement is perfectly accurate in the context, which is discussing the representation of Java types.
Java doesn't hold a monopoly on the word "pointer." For example, Go has pointers but doesn't allow pointer arithmetic in safe code. Similarly for Rust.
To clarify: the GP is probably referring to boxed and unboxed data types. IIRC, Java has some unboxed data types ("primitive" types?), but mostly everything is boxed behind a pointer.