[numifying a reference to something other than an actual memory address] would tend to invalidate the mechanisms (mostly using hashes), in use by existing modules also?

It needn't do so: all that is required is that the value be a) consistent and b) unique. If some person or other tries to cheat by making assumptions about the value, then yes their approach could be invalidated by such a change.

it begs requires the question of whether there will be some mechanism for asking the [Ponie] VM about circular references

I anticipate that Ponie would throw away the reference count (thus reducing the minimum size of an SV below 12), and maybe introduce another level of indirection (which could reduce the size of all SV headers to 4 or 8), but as long as references continue to numify to a consistent unique value (and probably still the memory address) the existing techniques will continue to work for discovering circular references.

Hugo

In reply to Re^3: Circular reference testing. by hv
in thread Circular reference testing. by BrowserUk

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