When this note was written, the major system programming languages (C, C++, Modula3, etc.) all allowed direct access, to a greater or lesser degree, to pointers to internal memory. This paragraph points out that adding indirect references to such languages would allow two kinds of reference, one of which was distribution transparent while the other was not. Java, of course, does not have direct access to pointers. Because of the Java use of references within the language, it does provide a platform in which address-space-relative pointers are missing. Thus Java not only permits a unified addressing scheme, it enforces that scheme.

There are actually a number of interface definition languages that are referred to by the initials IDL. When this note was originally written, we were referring to the CORBA interface definition language. However, the other languages that use this name share the characteristics discussed here, so the argument presented would apply equally to them.