3 is the referent of $2, or, if you like, thingy, which is what the Camel book called it before going all academic on us.

Call it what you like, I like the name Kevin.

However, I'm not sure I follow you all the way. My understanding is that the reference is to the value, not the variable. The variable is just a name tag to that value. When a value has a name then it increases its reference count (values can be anonymous). When that name drops out of scope the reference count is decremented, but the value is retained if something else references it. For example:
my $ref;
{
    my $x = 42;
    $ref = \$x;
}
print "$$ref\n";

[download]
The value still exists and has a reference to it, but the name, $x, does not.

In reply to Re: What's in a Reference? by cdarke
in thread What's in a Reference? by Xiong

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