Re: Reference vs. copy semantics in passing parameters

[jls@yoda.Rational.COM (Jim Showalter)]

Yes, but you miss my point (I think?). It is not modification of the
POINTER we are trying to prevent. We are trying to prevent modification
of what the pointer points to, and there is currently no way to insure
this in Ada. A doofus can break the rules with impunity.

Why would it BE a pointer? Beats me, but these things do happen from time
to time, and when they do it would be nice if the language made them safe.

One gross thing that people do currently is give IN/OUT semantics to
parameters on functions by passing a pointer and dereferencing it inside
the function to modify what the pointer points to. There is no way to
prevent this egregious behavior at present (note: many many people have
also requested that 9x include IN/OUT's on functions, which would make
the case for performing the trick just described even weaker).
--
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