[kazinator]

That's the same with languages that have first class functions. The code part is still passed by reference, not by copying around the machine code.

[saagarjha]

Of course, almost every high-level language that compiles to native code ends up doing something that looks like sugared C for many of their features.

[kazinator]

That first class functions are passed by reference can be verified at the high level; e.g. with the eq function in Common Lisp.