Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!decwrl!nsc!voder!procase!roger
From: roger@procase.UUCP (Roger H. Scott)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++
Subject: Re: Passing by reference (was Re: C++ coding standards (Comment needed))
Keywords: standard,variables
Message-ID: <187@simscript.procase.UUCP>
Date: 26 Aug 90 03:58:11 GMT
References: <2161@runxtsa.runx.oz.au> <183@logo.procase.UUCP> <15361@reed.UUCP>
Reply-To: roger@procase.UUCP (Roger H. Scott)
Organization: proCASE Corporation, Santa Clara, CA
Lines: 31

In article <15361@reed.UUCP> minar@reed.bitnet (Nelson Minar) writes:
> ... the pass by reference capabilities.
>
>In C++, this information is not available merely from the function call.
>Who knows if
>
>int a = 0;
>foo(a);
>
>will change the value of a or not in C++, without finding the prototype for
>the function and looking carefully.
>
>
>Is there any sort of nice convention to make this easier to deal with? I assume
>not.
Yes and no.  The "convention" I use is to eschew use of "plain" reference
arguments and use only "const T&" (reference to *const* object) arguments as
a parameter passing efficiency optimization that has no semantic significance.
If I want a function to modify a value I'll damn well pass a pointer to the
value.
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