&#62;Pointers are absolutely part of the average Haskell and Python work environment -- it's impossible to get reasonable performance without them.<p>I think that making calls to functions implemented in C via the FFI would be more productive. I've never heard of anyone using pointers in Python for anything.<p>&#62;This sentence makes no sense, and makes me think you've never (or seldom) used Haskell before.<p>Sure it does, performing an arbitrary mutation on an already known variable (location in memory) in Haskell is very intentionally non-trivial due to striving for purity as a functional language. (Copy rather than overwrite behavior as a default.)<p>&#62;That's because C is used in code where performance is absolutely critical, which demands having control over memory layout and management. Pointers aren't a symptom of using C -- using C is a result of needing pointers.<p>Uh, the whole, "C only uses pointers for speed" thing is completely incorrect. All the experienced C programmers I know use pointers simply because they're the most direct and portable means of writing terse code that is <i>still</i> performant in spite of the brevity. I mentioned functors for a reason.<p>This is more pedantic than some of the conversations I've witnessed in ##C on Freenode, <i>come on</i>.<p>You're missing the point by a greater distance than Christopher Columbus missed the West Indies in the late 15th century.