Assigning a reference to a typeglob (not a reference to a typeglob!) populates the appropriate slot within the typeglob. For example, *a = []; populates something you can address as @a. If you're passing arguments to a function, what would happen if someone sent the wrong reference type? *a = {}; is very different.

Consequently, I think you're much better off working with references explicitly. Run-time symbol table manipulation is powerful, and one percent of the time it's absolutely necessary. I think this falls strongly within the remaining 99%.

In reply to Re: Confused about typeglobs and references by chromatic
in thread Confused about typeglobs and references by Argel

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