ref / deref

[MX_Master]

And for what actually are general functions ref and deref ?

piece from source..

int CLuaFunctionDefs::Reference ( lua_State* luaVM ) 
{ 
    int iArgument1 = lua_type ( luaVM, 1 ); 
    if ( iArgument1 == LUA_TTABLE || iArgument1 == LUA_TFUNCTION || 
        iArgument1 == LUA_TUSERDATA || iArgument1 == LUA_TTHREAD || 
        iArgument1 == LUA_TLIGHTUSERDATA ) 
    { 
        int iPointer = lua_ref ( luaVM, 1 ); 
        lua_pushnumber ( luaVM, iPointer ); 
        return 1; 
    } 
    lua_pushboolean ( luaVM, false ); 
    return 1; 
} 
  
  
int CLuaFunctionDefs::Dereference ( lua_State* luaVM ) 
{ 
    if ( lua_type ( luaVM, 1 ) == LUA_TNUMBER ) 
    { 
        int iPointer = static_cast < int > ( lua_tonumber ( luaVM, 1 ) ); 
        lua_getref ( luaVM, iPointer ); 
        return 1; 
    } 
    lua_pushboolean ( luaVM, false ); 
    return 1; 
} 
  

[DakiLLa]

Yea, long time ago I was asking same question somewhere here..

[MX_Master]

ref is giving `number` pointer to the stack position of var which was placed as first argument? But how to use this `number` reference? ((:

[Maccer.]

Probably can't in LUA. It would be very awesome if you could. Lua needs references pretty badly, or at least parameter references.

[MX_Master]

some info found in Auxiliary Lib

int luaL_ref (lua_State *L, int t); 

Creates and returns a reference, in the table at index t, for the object at the top of the stack (and pops the object).

A reference is a unique integer key. As long as you do not manually add integer keys into table t, luaL_ref ensures the uniqueness of the key it returns. You can retrieve an object referred by reference r by calling lua_rawgeti(L, t, r). Function luaL_unref frees a reference and its associated object.

If the object at the top of the stack is nil, luaL_ref returns the constant LUA_REFNIL. The constant LUA_NOREF is guaranteed to be different from any reference returned by luaL_ref.

void luaL_unref (lua_State *L, int t, int ref); 

Releases reference ref from the table at index t (see luaL_ref). The entry is removed from the table, so that the referred object can be collected. The reference ref is also freed to be used again.

If ref is LUA_NOREF or LUA_REFNIL, luaL_unref does nothing.