Modifying Class Object

Steven D'Aprano steve at REMOVE-THIS-cybersource.com.au
Sun Feb 14 02:21:44 EST 2010


On Sat, 13 Feb 2010 21:33:50 -0800, Steve Howell wrote:

> You seem to be missing the point that "curly braces" is a concrete
> term that very specifically applies to spelling.

And you seem to be missing the point that "pointer" is also a concrete 
term that very specifically applies to, well, pointers.

[...]
> I agree that "reference" is a much better term than "pointer.". It has
> the right amount of generalness in my opinion. I think "violence" is a
> bit overstated, but your bigger point is well taken and it seems like
> "reference" is useful middle ground between pure cpython language and
> misrepresentative analogy.

But reference also has a concrete meaning: C++ has a type explicitly 
called "reference":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reference_(C++)

And of course call-by-reference (or pass-by-reference) has a specific, 
technical meaning.



-- 
Steven



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