Memory Management for Contachit Language

Automatic
- Memory for this type of variable always exists while it's in scope, and is automatically deleted when the scope is existed.
- Pointer variables (of any kind) will NEVER point to this type of variable.
- In C++ terms, this is "stack memory".
Pointer
- This type of pointer ALWAYS owns the memory it refers to (if any).
- You never have to manually delete this memory (like you would in C++). The memory is automatically deleted when variable goes out of scope, or is set to 'null'.
- A "pointer" variable will NEVER point to a "view_pointer" variable.
- No two "pointer" variables ever refer to the same memory.
- Consider "pointer" variables x and y. If x is told to point to y, the memory x used to refer to is deleted, and ownership of memory y refers to is transferred to x, and y is set to null.
- If memory a "pointer" refers to is ever deleted, any "view_pointer" which referred to this variable, is set to null. This prevents accessing memory which has been deleted. Note: This was the case when Contachit translations used "smart pointers", but was broken when I switched to "raw pointers". I plan to fix this one way or another.
- In C++ terms, a "pointer" refers to "heap memory".
View_Pointer
- This type of pointer NEVER owns the memory it refers to.
- [0..n] "view_pointer" can refer to a single "pointer" variable.
- If a "view_pointer" refers to a "pointer", and the "pointer" transfers ownership to a different "pointer" variable, the "view_pointer" will automatically now refer to the "pointer" variable which owns the memory. Note: This was the case when Contachit translations used "smart pointers", but was broken when I switched to "raw pointers". I plan to fix this one way or another.

Notes:

The highlighted parts, are what you need to pay most attention to. The code comments have useful info as well.
Because the function called has formal argument of variable type pointer, the memory of variable 'x' is transferred to the formal argument.

Notes:

The highlighted parts, are what you need to pay most attention to. The code comments have useful info as well.
Because the function called has formal argument of variable type view pointer, the variable 'x' maintains ownership of the memory after the function call.
The opposite is NOT valid. That is, you can't pass a "view pointer", as an argument when a "pointer" is expected.

Notes:

The highlighted parts, are what you need to pay most attention to. The code comments have useful info as well.
The function called expects a "view pointer", and is passed a "view pointer". No transfer of memory ownership occurs.
Basically, both "view pointer" variables, 'x' and 'y', both refer to memory owned by the object "abc::Robot".