Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!charyb!dan
From: dan@kfw.COM (Dan Mick)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++
Subject: Naive style question
Message-ID: <1991Jun29.023254.25184@kfw.COM>
Date: 29 Jun 91 02:32:54 GMT
Reply-To: dan@kfw.com (Dan Mick)
Organization: KFW Corporation, Newbury Park, CA
Lines: 35

I'm just starting with C++, and I'm pondering the issue of reference types.

For example, the oft-quoted example of 

void swap(int& i, int& j)
{
	int tmp;

	tmp = i; i = j; j = tmp;
}

Obviously, you'd use this with "swap(i,j);" as opposed to the C version with
pointers, which has to appear "swap(&i, &j);". 

My problem with this is that, as a maintenance programmer, you have to know
all about swap()s signature before you can know that swap(i,j) does or
doesn't change its parameters in the caller's scope, whereas with the
pointer version as in C, you *know* the caller's variables can't be changed
by the function unless their address is passed. 

It seems to me that the confidence inherent in pass-by-value is a big part of 
maintaining C code; in fact, it's one of the real advantages, to me, over
languages that support pass-by-reference, especially those that support pass-
by-reference with syntax *in the callee*.  

What do you all think?

Are reference types more of a hassle than they're worth?

Does this mean that it's insane to think about programming in C++ unless you've
got a *great* tags/class-browser system?

(Of course, this also opens the can of worms about overloaded functions and
operators...can you ever know what "+" means again?...but let's leave that
particular issue for another time...)