That limitation has nothing to do with C. The limitation
has all to do with the process model the operating system
uses. Suppose it would be possible to pass a reference
(or a pointer) to a child process. There are at least two
problems with that:
- What do you think is going to happen if the parent process dies?
- Pointers (and hence, references), are nothing more than
integers - virtual addresses to some place in memory.
If one could pass a pointer or a reference, it would
mean one process can muck around in the data space of
another process. Regardless of whether that pointer was
passed. Just think of those implications. No security!
Script kiddie heaven.
-- Abigail