Pass by reference ?

[Nick Maclaren]

In article <38EB6797.F03EEFB3 at roguewave.com>, Bjorn Pettersen <bjorn at roguewave.com> writes:
|> 
|> Call by reference is (at least now) generally used to refer to Pascal
|> VAR arguments or C++ & arguments, both of which has similar semantics
|> which allow rebinding in the caller's scope.  This is in contrast to
|> many OO languages where arguments can be mutated but not rebound...  I'm
|> not sure if call-by-reference has changed meaning since the 60s, but
|> pass/call-by-object-reference is the term consistently used when I was
|> doing my type theory work in 85-87...  

Pascal VAR arguments don't involve actual rebinding - the method
that I was thinking of would (in Python terms) permit the called
function to change the caller's identifier from pointing to a tuple
to pointing to a dictionary.  Upon return, the caller would see the
new object.

|> Just because something is a bad idea doesn't mean you can't get a
|> research grant for it <wink>

True.  I knew some that were for developing a program to solve
the Halting Problem ....


Regards,
Nick Maclaren,
University of Cambridge Computing Service,
New Museums Site, Pembroke Street, Cambridge CB2 3QG, England.
Email:  nmm1 at cam.ac.uk
Tel.:  +44 1223 334761    Fax:  +44 1223 334679