In article <3ff63f78@news.povray.org>, Warp <war### [at] tagpovrayorg> 
wrote:

> > #declare, #local: obsolete, deprecated, but unchanged in operation for 
> > backwards compatibility.
> > #global, #def or #define, #set: as described above, with #def declaring 
> > a local variable.
> 
>   How would #def be different from #local?

It would give a warning or error when used on an existing variable.


>   What's wrong with #local? It's certainly a whole lot more descriptive
> than #def.

And it's used. Changing it would break backwards compatibility.


>   I think that a lot of the confusion-causing problems in the current
> macro syntax would be avoided if you could specify if the macro takes
> its parameter by value (which would be the default in the current syntax)
> or by reference (with a special symbol or keyword).

I don't like this idea. One thing about C++ that I've never liked was 
the way you couldn't tell by reading the call whether you were passing 
by reference or by value. If something like this were added, I would 
prefer an explicit reference, something closer in usage (though not 
syntax) to pointers.

-- 
Christopher James Huff <cja### [at] earthlinknet>
http://home.earthlink.net/~cjameshuff/
POV-Ray TAG: <chr### [at] tagpovrayorg>
http://tag.povray.org/

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