Since when does a linked list mandate unpacked, fixed-width pointers? Citation needed! I note they are not called pointered lists, and challenge the assumptio

Since when does a linked list mandate unpacked, fixed-width pointers? Citation needed! I note they are not called pointered lists, and challenge the assumption that they even need use pointers - or do you think this abstract computer science concept is something different when applied to disk storage formats by using file offsets as the link? Linked lists as a concept date back to ~1955, when RAM was very expensive - magnetic-core memory being just introduced. Think punch cards. Returning back to the modern era - one also does not need a packed pointer type, merely support for multiple pointer sizes within the same process, and the ability to dynamically dispatch to the correct one for the job. And multiple pointer sizes within the same process are a matter of routine: In the 16-bit C era, vanilla "near" and "far" pointers very clearly weren't the same size. A very similar situation occurs under the hood when dealing with 32-bit processes on 64-bit windows via WoW64, which can lead to some interesting complications if you use a 64-bit application to create a crashdump for a "32-bit" process, where you can actually inspect the 64-bit side of things too (fire up WinDbg and dig in: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa384163(v=vs.85).aspx https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa3... ) This is to say nothing of 20+ byte member function pointers on 32-bit architectures because C++ is only out-crazied by C++ compilers. Or dealing with the complications of multiple pointer sizes via shared memory. Or dealing with file "pointers" (read: offsets) of varying sizes.