On Tue, 25 Apr 2000, Ron Anthony wrote:
> Fer,
>
> You are right about the error. Originally I had -(dEpsilon), but wanted to
> clean it up.
>
> This is a good example of the differences with "call by reference" and "call
> by value". I believe the default is call by reference, which means the
> address of dEpsilon is passed to the routine. That's why -dEpsilon is not
> valid. The negative of the address is not valid. By putting the parens
> around it, it changes to pass by value which means a -23.44 is passed to the
> routine. This is an age old programming dilemma that goes back 30 or 40
> years.
>
> I urge everyone to read the help section on calls.
>
> ++ron
Which brings to mind the anecdote about a seminar given by Niclaus Wirth,
the creator of the Pascal programming language. In the end-session
question period, a student asked him just what was the correct
pronunciation of his last name. Wirth answered, "That all depends upon
whether you call me by reference or by value!"
("Virt" vs. "Worth")
Dave
