[cpp.pointer] Pointers

Java stores logical references to objects, but these do not necessarily correspond directly to areas of memory.  

This means that there is no longer any direct access to memory through a pointer.  Specific areas of memory can still be directly accessed by writing a native library DLL or .so shared object extension which is then “wrapped” by java code.

Trap: Native library extensions immediately introduce a portability problem to your application, albeit a smaller problem than would exist in a compiled C++ program.  Also, they're pretty difficult to debug when there's a problem.