The first problem is that 'two.One' is not declared as reference because 'One' is a non-static normal declared field. 'One' field should be declared as non-static reference (with syntax for example: 'byref One as TOne ...' ), but FreeBASIC does not support it at prese...

Munair wrote:references to objects within objects cannot be null referenced (yet) without using pointers.

Can you give a simple example of this handicap, to see if we can still do something?

For UDT instances, swapping is applied on each field.
Optimization only at the level of the var-len string/array fields.

No IMHO, optimization only for the UDT fields data that are descriptors in fact:
- var-len string fields
- var-len arrays
An object instance has no global descriptor.

If I'm wrong, show me a code example.

This type of optimization is only applied to var-len strings because the "value" of a var-len string is its descriptor. Only the contents of descriptors are exchanged and not the character data themselves: Dim As String s1 = "1" Dim As String s2 = "2" Print "descri...

dodicat wrote:fxm
your example gives
Compiler output:
Aborting due to runtime error 12 ("segmentation violation" signal) in 32 bit gas and gcc
And compile failed with no reason shown in 64 bit gcc.

Bug now fixed in Rev 1.06.

In FreeBASIC, anything that can be done with pointers can be done with references (because a reference is the dereferencing of an internal pointer, but accessible by user). Not true, because there's no orthogonality between references and pointers Yes in that case, because non static reference fiel...

Since in FreeBasic you can't do late binding of references, there's not much else you can do when/if you start working with interfaces. In FreeBASIC, anything that can be done with pointers can be done with references (because a reference is the dereferencing of an internal pointer, but accessible ...

If you have another reference for each of the two variables, you can not reason as a name permutation because it was as if the other alias names were also implicitly permuted: Dim As Integer I1 = 1, I2 = 2 Dim Byref As Integer RI1 = I1, RI2 = I2 Print I1, I2 Print RI1, RI2 Print Swap I1, I2 Print I1...

I was under the impression that the "invalid data types" error is due to the byref clause, not because the object is temporary. Not exactly. With a local instance, no compiler error but the program does not run as wanted: type TT extends object s as string declare constructor() end type c...

Yes. For the bugged code, the compiler does not complain because a hacked expression is used to create first the null reference: dim byref t as TT = *cptr(TT ptr, 0) @t = @TT() If you attempt to directly create a reference on a temporary object: dim byref t as TT = TT() "...

In FreeBASIC, a reference is in fact an internal pointer (created by the compiler) which is implicitly dereferenced when user want to access the reference. In the bugged code, the internal pointer points to a local instance (which is so destroyed when returning from the function). For more informati...

Your above code is not safe because 'TT()' is a local instance in the function body. Similar example to highlight the bug: type TT extends object s as string declare constructor() end type constructor TT() print "TT called" end constructor function SomeTT(byval b as boolean...

Yes.
The implicit typename is the one specified as return in the function declaration.