Why can't we make reference variables?

[Era Scarecrow]

On Wednesday, 29 August 2012 at 02:57:27 UTC, Era Scarecrow wrote:
> You would need a flag added to EVERY variable and item to 
> specify if it was stack allocated or not. Otherwise it would be 
> quite annoying to deal with. The compiler has to work blindly, 
> assuming everything is correct. You can ref what you've been 
> given but making more permanent references aren't possible 
> without bypassing the safeguards.

  To add on to this a little.. If you can only ref by calling, you 
ensure the variable is alive/valid when you are calling it 
regardless if it's stack or heap or global (But can't ensure it 
once the scope ends). Making a reference as a variable modifier 
won't work, but using a pointer you're already going lower level 
and it's all up to you the programmer to make sure it's right.

  I think that's right; Otherwise ref wouldn't be allowed in @safe 
code (at all).