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• doc/theses/andrew_beach_MMath/existing.tex (modified) (1 diff)

doc/theses/andrew_beach_MMath/existing.tex

@@ -42 +42 @@
 
 \section{Reference Type}
-\CFA adds a reference type to C as an auto-dereferencing pointer.
-They work very similarly to pointers.
-Reference-types are written the same way as a pointer-type is but each
-asterisk (@*@) is replaced with a ampersand (@&@);
-this includes cv-qualifiers and multiple levels of reference.
-
-They are intended for cases where you would want to use pointers but would
-be dereferencing them (almost) every usage.
-In most cases a reference can just be thought of as a pointer that
-automatically puts a dereference infront of each of its uses (per-level of
-reference).
-The address-of operator (@&@) acts as an escape and removes one of the
-automatic dereference operations.
-Mutable references may be assigned to by converting them to a pointer
-with a @&@ and then assigning a pointer too them.
-
-\begin{minipage}{0,5\textwidth}
-With references:
+\CFA adds a rebindable reference type to C, but more expressive than the \Cpp
+reference.  Multi-level references are allowed and act like auto-dereferenced
+pointers using the ampersand (@&@) instead of the pointer asterisk (@*@). \CFA
+references may also be mutable or non-mutable. If mutable, a reference variable
+may be assigned using the address-of operator (@&@), which converts the
+reference to a pointer.
 \begin{cfa}
 int i, j;
-int & ri = i;
-int && rri = ri;
-rri = 3;
-&ri = &j;
-ri = 5;
-\end{cfa}
-\end{minipage}
-\begin{minipage}{0,5\textwidth}
-With pointers:
-\begin{cfa}
-int i, j;
-int * pi = &i
-int ** ppi = π
-**ppi = 3;
-pi = &j;
-*pi = 5;
-\end{cfa}
-\end{minipage}
+int & ri = i, && rri = ri;
+rri = 3;  // auto-dereference assign to i
+&ri = &j; // rebindable
+ri = 5;   // assign to j
+\end{cfa}
 
 \section{Constructors and Destructors}