Who modified my local variable?

[Ross Werner]

On Tue, 13 Jun 2006, Shane Hathaway wrote:
> Interesting.  To me, the distinction between a pointer and a reference
> is that a reference not only points to the object referenced but also
> has some kind of strong link back to the thing that's referencing it.

I got to this thread kind of late, but just wanted to throw in my .02 USD.

-----Psuedocode-----
// ...
foo(x);
// ...

function foo(x) {
   x = y;
}
-----End Pseudocode-----

If you can modify a variable inside a function by using the assignment 
operator, then it's pass by reference. If using the assignment operator 
*doesn't* modify the variable, then it's pass by value.

Hence, Java is always pass by value (which makes perfect sense to me). C 
is also always pass by value unless you use the '&', in which case it's 
pass by reference (because at that point, using the assignment operator 
inside the function does modify that passed-in variable.

 	~ Ross