From: nobu@...
Date: 2006-06-23T10:04:58+09:00
Subject: Re: Using pack/unpack to go from string to address and back to string

Hi,

At Fri, 23 Jun 2006 02:06:26 +0900,
Daniel Berger wrote in [ruby-talk:198559]:
> > It's disallowed.  If it were possible, you could get an illegal
> > "String."  For instance:
> >
> >   [1].pack('l').unpack('p*')
> >
> >   
> Would it be possible to make an exception for strings (char pointers)?  

How can you tell if it is a valid pointer?  Use DL::Ptr if you
really sure, at your own risk.

> Or is there no way to determine the type of underlying object in time?

Basically, no way to determine what a bare memory chunk is.

-- 
Nobu Nakada