@ptrCast,
reply> Converts a pointer of one type to a pointer of another type. [1]
[1] https://ziglang.org/documentation/master/#toc-ptrCast
So it is not the same.
You could use it to define a function that implements bitCast. Which defeats the purpose of having any @bitCast intrinsic instead of using @mempcy for everything
Take the address and deref afterwards, and it's exactly the same. Or to say another way: if you want bits to be reinterpreted raw as if they're in memory, then... put them in memory, then reinterpret them.
reply> You could use it to define a function that implements bitCast. Which defeats the purpose of having any @bitCast intrinsic
Yes, and this is one reason @bitCast was changed to have semantics that are not trivially achieved with @ptrCast.