[DougBTX]

> I want everything that passes through a function to be a copy unless I put in a symbol or keyword that it suppose to be passed by reference.

JavaScript doesn’t have references, it is clearer to only use “passed by reference” terminology when writing about code in a language which does have them, like C++ [0].

In JavaScript, if a mutable object is passed to a function, then the function can change the properties on the object, but it is always the same object. When an object is passed by reference, the function can replace the initial object with a completely different one, that isn’t possible in JS.

Better is to distinguish between immutable objects (ints, strings in JS) and mutable ones. A mutable object can be made immutable in JS using Object.freeze [1].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reference_(C%2B%2B)

[1] https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Refe...

[hackthemack]

Thinking on this subject a bit more. I have to wonder if C++ made references just so there is a fast an efficient way to mutate without having to make a copy?

Maybe someone should work on a way to make references in javascript land. Sort of like immer but baked in.

https://immerjs.github.io/immer/

[hackthemack]

I guess in javascript world, the phrasing I am looking for would be

I wish all arguments were copies unless I put some symbol that says, alright, go ahead and give me the original to mutate?

It seems like this way, you reduce side effects, and if you want the speed of just using the originals, you could still do that by using special notation.