An arrangement by which pointers may be represented in a restricted software execution environment that provides access to only reference types but not pointers is realized by modeling both pointers and value type boxing using a set of boxes (i.e., containers) which describe how to retrieve the value associated with the pointer, and emitting code for accessing the set of boxes. A decompiling and recompiling process is utilized in which code arranged to run in an execution environment that supports pointers is scanned to reveal pointer and boxing usage. In one illustrative example, code is responsively emitted to create one or more specific boxes. At runtime in the restricted execution environment, an instance of a box class is created to thus emulate a pointer to the value.