On Sunday, 23 June 2024 at 21:50:37 UTC, Vladimir Marchevsky
wrote:
On Sunday, 23 June 2024 at 13:29:21 UTC, Mike Parker wrote:
DIP1046, "ref For Variable Declarations", has been accepted:
https://github.com/dlang/DIPs/blob/master/DIPs/accepted/DIP1046.md
which reduces the complexity of the code, as long-winded
global names get a shorthand
Does ref add anything compared to using an alias?..
`ref` will bind to lvalue expressions, e.g (from the DIP):
```d
ref int dark(ref int x, int i, int* q)
{
ref m = *q; // m refers to whatever q points to
...
}
```
`*q` is an expression, not a symbol. `ref` can bind to e.g. a
struct field runtime value, or an lvalue returned from a function.
`alias` only allows giving new names for existing compile-time
symbols.
