Re: Why can't we make reference variables?

[Tommi]

On Thursday, 30 August 2012 at 11:53:14 UTC, bearophile wrote:
Tommi:
   // This prints 1, so we called the actual method

I think in D methods have precedence over free functions.

Bye,
bearophile

Yes, but to me the ambiguity of that example is in whether or not 
implicit deferencing of pointers has precedence over uniform 
function call syntax. Apparently it does, but it's not that 
obvious that it would.

struct MyStruct
{
    int _value = 0;

    void increment()
    {
        ++_value;
    }
}

void increment(ref MyStruct* ptr)
{
    ++ptr;
}

void main()
{
    MyStruct* ptrMyStruct = new MyStruct();

    // Are we incrementing the pointer using UFCS or
    // are we calling the member function in MyStruct?
    ptrMyStruct.increment();
}