const references and synonyms

This is a recall of a previous constant discussion.  I would like to 
differentiate between const instances and const references.

//the following is a shared reference to a const heap instance
T const ^ ref;	

//the following is a const shared reference to a heap instance
T ^ const ref;

//const references disallow rebinding, ro conversion to non-const
//references
ref @= otherRef;	//error, cannot rebind

void func( T^ param );
func( ref );	//error, cannot conver to non-const reference

This then needs to be extended to synonyms in the function call syntax. 
  To show why, here is an example of what bad happens without:

template<typename T>
void beNice( T& ref ) {
	ref @= somethingElse;
}

The callers of this function have no guarantee that their shared 
references aren't being rebound -- while sometimes they may want this, 
other times clearly not.  So:

template<typename T>
void beNice( T const& ) {
	ref @= somethingElse;	//fails, cannot rebind const reference
}

This of course requires a "^ const" to have meaning, which I've define 
above.

--

-- 
edA-qa mort-ora-y
Idea Architect
http://disemia.com/

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