Description
Memory read/write abstraction - pointer indirection - has been mentioned as a possible route #1168 to implement precise garbage collector but I think introducing such a thing has additional uses.
Remember that micropython is often run on bare-metal (cc @peterhinch ) and we're using C to implement it so we don't have the nifty tricks of operator overloading of C++ (sigh) i.e. we cannot redefine the * dereferencing operator.
Executing from flash
In #4124 I inquire of the possibility of running a .mpy from flash and @dpgeorge answers with a straightforward solution. However there is a large constraint:
The other big issue to solve would be making sure that .mpy's live in a location that is 1) memory mapped to the CPU; 2) contiguous.
If we had indirection, the code wouldn't have to be contiguous because the VM code's reading of the opcodes - switch (*ip++) - would be replaced with switch(GET(ip)) (or something).
Once you can execute from ANY flash location you can save the mp_raw_code_t to flash after you import.
RAM! (my precious)
Everyone wants to save RAM by any tricks in .py code but parsing and compilation are a huge low-ish hanging fruit. We could save the parse-tree and other artifacts in flash.