Things that make writing a clean binding system more difficult

[Steven Schveighoffer via Digitalmars-d]

On 7/28/16 4:16 PM, Jonathan M Davis via Digitalmars-d wrote:
> On Thursday, July 28, 2016 01:49:35 Walter Bright via Digitalmars-d wrote:
>> On 7/28/2016 1:33 AM, Ethan Watson wrote:
>>> 1) Declaring a function pointer with a ref return value can't be done
>>> without workarounds.
>>>
>>> Try compiling this:
>>>
>>> ref int function( int, int ) functionPointer;
>>>
>>> It won't let you, because only parameters and for loop symbols can be ref
>>> types. Despite the fact that I intend the function pointer to be of a
>>> kind that returns a ref int, I can't declare that easily. Easy, declare
>>> an alias, right?
>>>
>>> alias RefFunctionPointer = ref int function( int, int );
>>
>> C/C++ have essentially the same problem, if you want to declare a function
>> pointer parameter that has different linkage.
>>
>> The trouble is there's an ambiguity in the grammar. I don't really have
>> anything better than the two step process you outlined.
>
> Well, if we decided to make parens with ref legal, then we could make it
> work. e.g.
>
> ref(int) function(int, int) functionPointer;
>
> Now, I don't know of any other case where you'd actually use parens with ref
> if it were legal, but it would solve this particular case if we wanted to
> provide a way around the ambiguity.

No, because that implies a type-modifier. ref does not modify the type 
at all, it just specifies the storage class.

-Steve