DIP1000: Walter's proposal to resolve ambiguity of ref-return-scope parameters

[Dennis]

On Friday, 26 November 2021 at 09:19:45 UTC, Araq wrote:
> What is a "storage class"?

A property of a variable declaration that says something about 
the memory it is stored in. In C, that could be e.g. `register` 
or `volatile`. In D, that could be `__gshared`, which says a 
global variable is stored in the data section instead of thread 
local storage (default).

> And assuming this terms means anything, why would "ref" be one?

It's a property of a parameter (which is a variable declaration) 
that says it's not stored in this function's frame, but somewhere 
higher up.

> In what world is a hidden pointer a "storage class"?

You don't explicitly spell out the `this` parameter in member 
functions, but `ref` is not 'hidden'.

You are right though that making `ref` a storage class is a 
questionable decision, it adds a lot of complexity to the 
compiler, which has tons of split code paths (a search for 
`isref` gives me 229 hits). Same for `scope`, which is also 
questionable as a storage class: it doesn't even say anything 
about the variable itself, only about the variable that the 
pointer points to.