I don't like implicit references, I think it's one of the mistakes in C++. It's ok to have one or two magic functions like sscanf, but if any pike function could do the same, the code gets a lot harder to read.
An explicit operator in the function call expression is clearer.
And it's also cool to let "int a" be a valid *expression* which evaluates to a pointer/locative.
/ Niels Möller (med röd bil)
Previous text:
2003-04-16 08:28: Subject: Pointers/lvalues
I think it would be prettier if the sscanf function could be implemented in Pike (implicit references) rather then to use explicit pointer operators, but pointer operators are easier to understand and makes it clearer what's going on, and are probaby way easier to implement.
I've never really felt the need for pointers or call by reference, though. I've grown used to returning multple values via an array.
/ Mirar