Pointers are the nirvana of C ;-). Also the place where most of that
proverbial lot of rope you get to hang yourself with is located <g>.

The idea behind pointers results from one of the efficient programming
principles, which is 'move pointers, not data'. Assuming data size is
larger than any type representable in a register, this makes immediate
sense. You will have a (one or several) small window of the large data
which you see, and the pointer is what points to the window. Through the
window (pointer) you can access your data, for read, or write. In C
pointers require explicit manipulation by the programmer (unlike other
languages, like BASIC which is pointer-less).

Using pointers on strings (and especially avoiding copying at any cost)
will cause a relatively small RAM consumption for your code. This applies
for PICs and for other architectures too.

Pointers go far beyond strings, and are key components for writing for
example byte code interpreters (where pointers to functions are often
used, at least in the development stage).

hope this helps,

Peter

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