Re: pass by reference

Lew <lew@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Andreas Leitgeb wrote:
Chase Preuninger <chasepreuninger@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
All objects are "passed by reference" and all primitive types have
their value copied.
The objects are indeed passed by reference.
When I took a practice certification exam in Java, I was marked wrong for
saying that objects are passed by reference. The fact is that objects are not
passed at all - references are, and they are passed by value.

This indication of lingual hairsplitting perhaps explains, why I got
somewhat less than 100% for my SCJP (but still by far enough to pass).
Can't say for sure, since one is never told, which of the questions
were really answered wrongly.

Just as well one could say that nothing at all is passed (since methods
don't have arms or hands to pass things around), but only written to some
physical memory-location where it is then accessible to the called method...
and then we go on, that the jvm doesn't really "call" the method, because
the method doesn't have ears to hear any calling...(btw., "invoke" also has
an etymology that boils down to some form of akoustic communication.)
Really, this makes me sick.

.

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