downpointer
nounEtymology From down- + pointer.
1
Computing, Computing theory, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Sciences A pointer in a hierarchical data structure that points to the node that is down from the current node.
- Except at level zero, the downpointer always points down.1969, Information Processing: Proceedings of the IFIP Congress, page 1249:
- […] this data structure differs from the tree […] illustrated in Fig. 1, only by having downpointers replaced by downtrees.1985, Society for Industrial, Applied Mathematics, SIAM Journal on Computing, volume 14, page 244:
1 more example
- By using the so-called functional approach to data structures Chazelle [1988] developed a compression scheme to encode the downpointers used by Willard [1985] to reduce further the space requirement.2004, Allen B. Tucker, Computer Science Handbook, pages 11–25:
2
Aeronautics, Aerospace, Aviation, Business, Engineering, Natural sciences, Physical sciences An indicator that points toward the ground.
- During one session , the subject used a canopy-mounted downpointer to estimate position in space relative to the ground, and in the other session the subject used a joystick-controlled, inside-out, aircraft attitude indicator.1989, Aviation Space and Environmental Medicine, page 492: