More like evil genius… Variations of this trick are a common optimization in embedded systems for years. (Stuff like this is why “premature optimization” is considered such a bad thing.)
On that note, I find it interesting that the article writer wanted to see more languages support pointer arithmetic. Language mechanics like that have developed a reputation of being “unsafe” due to they enabling common programming errors like buffer overflows and the like. Depending on the level of abstraction between the language and underlying iron, it might not even be possible to do stuff like this anymore. (Some modern languages/VMs/compilers use the more abstract concept of “references” over “pointers.” Even Apple’s flavor of Objective C, which AFAICT is still using pointers as an implementation detail, prefers to couch documentation and API conventions in the more abstract convention to deter some of the direct memory access abuses that were discovered during the Classic-to-Carbon Mac migration way back when…)
On that note, I find it interesting that the article writer wanted to see more languages support pointer arithmetic. Language mechanics like that have developed a reputation of being “unsafe” due to they enabling common programming errors like buffer overflows and the like. Depending on the level of abstraction between the language and underlying iron, it might not even be possible to do stuff like this anymore. (Some modern languages/VMs/compilers use the more abstract concept of “references” over “pointers.” Even Apple’s flavor of Objective C, which AFAICT is still using pointers as an implementation detail, prefers to couch documentation and API conventions in the more abstract convention to deter some of the direct memory access abuses that were discovered during the Classic-to-Carbon Mac migration way back when…)