If you think about arrays as pointers, you will get a lot of things wrong, e.g.
float m[10][10];
it not a an array of pointers, but a 2D dimensional array with 2D memory layout.
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You are right, sizeof is the other big difference. I think these differences are small enough that it was a mistake separate the two. The similarities / differences do make them confusing.
How would you express a 2D memory layout with only pointers?
An array of pointers to arrays? Basically, a `T**` C#'s "jagged" arrays are like this, and to get a "true" 2D array, you use different syntax (a comma in the indexer):
int[][] jagged; // an array of `int[]` (i.e. each element is a pointer to a `int[]`)
int[,] multidimensional; // a "true" 2D array laid out in memory sequentially
// allocate the jagged array; each `int[]` will be null until allocated separately
jagged = new int[][10];
Debug.Assert(jagged.All(elem => elem == null));
for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++)
jagged[i] = new double[10]; // allocate the internal arrays
Debug.Assert(jagged[i][j] == 0);
// allocate the multidimensional array; each `int` will be `default` which is 0
// element [i,j] will be at offset `10*i + j`
multiDimensional = new double[10, 10];
Debug.Assert(multiDimensional[i, j] == 0);Yes, this is people with pre-C99 compilers that do not support variably modified types sometimes do. It is horrible (although there are some use cases).