Stop Doing &u32

STOP DOING &u32 • REFERENCES WERE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE MADE TO SMALL TYPES • YEARS OF integers yet NO REAL-WORLD USE FOUND for immutable references to primitive types smaller than a machine word • Wanted to give a function an &f32 ? We had a tool for that: It was called pass by value • “Yes please give me &u8 of something. Please give me 8 bytes of it” - Statements dreamed up by generic functions LOOK at what compilers have been demanding your Respect for all this time, with all the LLVM & GCC we built for them (This is REAL GCC, done by REAL optimizing compilers): ????? ?????? ????????????? "Hello I would like 0x7ffaa 757dd4 apples please" They have played us for absolute fools

A programming meme criticizes compilers and generic functions for producing bizarre hexadecimal-looking values and demanding respect from programmers. The joke is that references to tiny primitive types such as &u8, &f32, and &u32 are presented as if they were useful, while the compiler allegedly asks for nonsensical values instead of simply using pass-by-value semantics. It is shared as an absurd reaction to confusing compiler behavior, low-level programming, or overly complicated abstractions.

• @gentoomemes / 12348 2024-07-17