For working with arrays elements without bound checks, this is the modern alternative to pointers, without object pinning for GC and "unsafe" keyword: MemoryMarshal. GetArrayDataReference<T>(T[]). This is still totally unsafe, but is "modern safer unsafe" that works with `ref`s and makes friends with System.Runtime.CompileServices.Unfafe.
Funny point: the verbosity of this method and SRCS.Unsafe ones make them look slower vs pointers at subconscious level for me, but they are as fast if not faster to juggle with knifes in C#.
The `fixed` keyword is mostly for fast transient pinning of data. Raw pointers from `fixed` remain handy in some cases, e.g. for alignment when working with AVX, but even this can be done with `ref`s, which can reference an already pinned array from Pinned Object Heap or native memory. Most APIs accept `ref`s and GC continues tracking underlying objects.
See the subtle difference here for common misuse of fixed to get array data pointer: https://sharplab.io/#v2:C4LghgzgtgPgAgJgIwFgBQcDMACR2DC2A3ut...
Spans are great, but sometimes raw `ref`s are a better fit for a task, to get the last bits of performance.
Funny point: the verbosity of this method and SRCS.Unsafe ones make them look slower vs pointers at subconscious level for me, but they are as fast if not faster to juggle with knifes in C#.
The `fixed` keyword is mostly for fast transient pinning of data. Raw pointers from `fixed` remain handy in some cases, e.g. for alignment when working with AVX, but even this can be done with `ref`s, which can reference an already pinned array from Pinned Object Heap or native memory. Most APIs accept `ref`s and GC continues tracking underlying objects.
See the subtle difference here for common misuse of fixed to get array data pointer: https://sharplab.io/#v2:C4LghgzgtgPgAgJgIwFgBQcDMACR2DC2A3ut...
Spans are great, but sometimes raw `ref`s are a better fit for a task, to get the last bits of performance.