From: Thomas Hafner <thomas@...>
Date: 2007-08-13T18:09:59+09:00
Subject: Re: global_variable_set (like instance_variable_set)

"Gregory Brown" <gregory.t.brown@gmail.com> wrote/schrieb <b37300880708121715x1d92719fjd0311d10e10bc24a@mail.gmail.com>:

> On 8/12/07, Thomas Hafner <thomas@hafner.nl.eu.org> wrote:
> > "Gregory Brown" <gregory.t.brown@gmail.com> wrote/schrieb <b37300880708121526j299f1ed3t3b7e45851d9ec0e9@mail.gmail.com>:
> >
> > Nevertheless, if Ruby had explicit references (does it?), it would be
> > simple enough to have just one function instead of the original both
> > ones
> 
> You'll want to catch up on this thread:
> http://rubyurl.com/FrJ

This thread treats ``pass by reference'' which is like aliasing. With
``explicit references'' I rather mean explicitly referencing (by
operator ``&'' in C resp. ``\'' in Perl) and dereferencing (by
operator ``*'' in C resp. ``$'' in Perl). Here's a Perl example:

 sub foo {
     my ($ref) = @_; # consume argument array
     ${$ref}++; # dereference and increment
 }
 my $bar = 3;
 foo(\$bar); # make a reference to $bar and pass it to the function
 print $bar; # => 4

Regards
  Thomas