reference types
The "value" of a KDLScript reference type &T
is its pointee for the purposes of abi-cafe. In this regard it's similar to C++ references or Rust references, where most operations automagically talk about the pointee and not the pointer. Using a reference type lets you test that something can properly be passed-by-reference, as opposed to passed-by-value.
Reference types may appear in other composite types, indicating that the caller is responsible for allocating variables for each one and then storing pointers to them in the composite type.
Currently theoretical and probably will never be implemented: When used in the outputs of a function, a reference type is sugar for an out-param that the caller is responsible for allocating and the callee is responsible for initializing. Out-params should appear after all normal inputs but before varargs.