A few things.
The S_REF instruction creates a _copy_ of the referenced string. Proof:
FUNC foo
// string local_string = "foo"
SH_LOCALREF local_string
S_PUSH "foo"
S_ASSIGN
S_POP
// prepare argument for bar()
PUSHLOCALPAGE
PUSH local_string
S_REF
// stealthily alter local_string
SH_LOCALREF local_string
S_PUSH "bar"
S_ASSIGN
S_POP
// bar(local_string)
CALLFUNC bar // local_string is still "foo" in the body of bar()!
Thus, it is not CALLFUNC's responsibility to copy by-value string
arguments. CALLFUNC need only copy the index from the stack into the
local page.
Objects pushed to the stack with SH_LOCALREF, SH_GLOBALREF and REF do
not gain a reference. They are already referenced by the page they
belong to.
I believe the implementation of S_REF is still not quite right. What
I've noticed is that System40.exe is able to distinguish between strings
pushed with S_REF/S_PUSH and strings pushed with
SH_LOCALREF/SH_GLOBALREF/REF. It seems the former are r-values and the
latter are l-values (i.e. the latter can be assigned to, but not the
former), and the VM will throw an error if you try to assign to an
r-value.
The underlying implementation is not clear to me. Both types appear to
be indices into the heap, which suggests that the distinguishing factor
must be stored either in the object itself, or as part of the pointer to
an object. Perhaps its as simple as a flag marking an object as an
r-value?
Building 'test/test.pje' with the SDK compiler produces a file at
'test/Run/test.ain' which can be run with xsystem4 to test various
features.
Not the greatest testing method, but it works.
kichikuou