Remove pass-by-ref

[eileenmcnaughton]

Overview

Remove pass-by-ref- pass by ref does nothing on objects

Before

After

poof

Technical Details

[civibot]

(Standard links)

• If you are reviewing this pull-request, you may wish to consult the test sites and the Review Standards (long template, short template).

[yashodha]

@eileenmcnaughton looks good, merging this PR.

[demeritcowboy]

This is probably safe in this context but note the & does do something for objects. Compare:

php -r "class A { public $foo = 1; } $a = new A(); $b = $a; $a = new A(); $a->foo = 2; echo $b->foo;"

outputs 1 since $b is still pointing to the original $a, but

php -r "class A { public $foo = 1; } $a = new A(); $b = &$a; $a = new A(); $a->foo = 2; echo $b->foo;"

outputs 2 since with the & $b is tied to $a even when $a is reassigned.

[colemanw]

@demeritcowboy that's good to know! But something tells me that's not the reason the & was originally added...