.. _PointerIntro:

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.. This file is part of the OpenDSA eTextbook project. See
.. http://algoviz.org/OpenDSA for more details.
.. Copyright (c) 2012-2016 by the OpenDSA Project Contributors, and
.. distributed under an MIT open source license.

.. avmetadata:: 
   :author: Cliff Shaffer
   :requires:
   :satisfies:
   :topic: Pointers

Pointers Chapter Introduction
=============================

What you see in this chapter is an extremely early version of our
Pointer Tutorial project.
We have ambitious goals for this material, but it will take us some
time to realize them.

The prose and images in this initial version are essentially a
verbatim translation into the OpenDSA system of a document written by
Nick Parlante of Stanford University, and used by permission of the
author.

"`Pointers and Memory
<http://cslibrary.stanford.edu/102/PointersAndMemory.pdf>`_"
by Nick Parlante, Copyright 1998-2000,
Stanford CS Education Library.

Our goals for this project include the following:

* A series of visualizations to support the prose
* A substantial number of interactive, small programming
  exercises. Our inspiration for these is the
  `JhavePop <http://jhave.org/jhavepop/>`_, whose authors are
  collaborators within the OpenDSA project.
* Automated feedback including program visualizations for student
  answers to the programming exercises. We are currently experimenting
  with integrating Philip Guo's
  `PythonTutor <http://www.pythontutor.com/>`_
  visualization system to support this.