In continuation of discussion with @jvdb, as references in metal are lists, we could model them as c arrays, where they are a pointer to the first element.
For example:
So if you want to do something with the whole list, you reference x, if you want to take the most recent element you can use either the * notation, or get the 0th element.
If you want to take the first, you use index -1. And we also add a syntax for ranges, like slices in golang, rascal, rust. ([start:stop] or [start:] or [: stop])
The most confusing part is the fact that the list are in a way reverse.
And the file offset is a bit strange, as &(*x) would be the cleanest. But that's strange, but maybe &x would also be unintuitive, as in c x would be the pointer you want to have. This gets more intuitive with the &(x[4]) syntax. So we could also drop the *x shorthand, and always write x[0].
In continuation of discussion with @jvdb, as references in metal are lists, we could model them as c arrays, where they are a pointer to the first element.
For example:
So if you want to do something with the whole list, you reference x, if you want to take the most recent element you can use either the * notation, or get the 0th element.
If you want to take the first, you use index -1. And we also add a syntax for ranges, like slices in golang, rascal, rust. (
[start:stop] or [start:] or [: stop])The most confusing part is the fact that the list are in a way reverse.
And the file offset is a bit strange, as
&(*x)would be the cleanest. But that's strange, but maybe&xwould also be unintuitive, as in cxwould be the pointer you want to have. This gets more intuitive with the&(x[4])syntax. So we could also drop the*xshorthand, and always writex[0].