Surely then, passing an object by reference is just passing the reference to the reference to the object by value? It's references all the way down! To take i

Surely then, passing an object by reference is just passing the reference to the reference to the object by value? It's references all the way down! To take it to a lower level, we're passing a string of binary digits to the function. This happens either through a register, or through the stack. The function then has to decide what to do with it - either it uses it as the value of something, or it takes it as a memory address and derefences it. It can then repeat this last step for as many levels of indirection as it wishes. It's clearer in C. void f(struct object a); // Pass struct by value void f_(struct object* a); // Pass struct by reference, pass reference by value void f__(struct object a); // Pass reference to struct by reference, pass reference to reference to struct by value void f________struct object a); // What the hell are you doing? You've created a monstrosity