Let's review the basics!

Great Expectations

by Glennan Carnie

From the article:

Previously, we’ve looked at the basic concepts of function parameter passing, and we’ve looked at the mechanics of how parameters are passed at the Application Binary Interface (ABI) level.

Far too often we focus on the mechanisms and efficiency of parameter passing, with the goal: if it’s efficient then it’s good; that’s all there is to it.  In this article I want to move past simple mechanics and start to explore function parameter design intent – that is, what can I expect (to change) about the objects I use as function arguments; and what can I expect to be able to do with an object as a function implementer.

To that end, we’ll take a look at parameter passing from the perspective of the mutability (ability to be modified) of the parameters from both a caller’s and a function’s (callee’s) point of view...