Reference Attributes

In Qingkuai, reference attributes are a syntax for passing variable references by prefixing attribute names with & (such as &value). They let you establish a reference relationship between an attribute and an external variable in templates, so the attribute value can be read and written directly from outside, enabling flexible data linkage and state transfer.

JavaScript itself does not support pass-by-reference, but through the compiler's processing, Qingkuai's reference attributes can simulate the effect of reference (pointer) passing in languages such as C, C++, and Go — under the hood, this is essentially a setter invocation. With reference attributes, variables can be explicitly "passed by address" into an element or component, so you can share and operate on the same state source across multiple contexts. This mechanism is concise and powerful, improving both expressiveness and control in template state management. The following pseudocode helps illustrate the difference between pass-by-reference and pass-by-value:

let num = 10

function passByValue(n) {
    // In pass-by-value, n is a copy of num,
    // and they are two separate locations in memory.
    // Modifying n does not affect the original num value.
    n = n + 1
}

function passByReference(n) {
    // * is the dereference operator. It is used to:
    // Read the value at the location pointed to by n,
    // then add 1 and write the result back to that location.
    *n = *n + 1
}

passByValue(num)
console.log(num) // logs: 10

// & is the address-of operator. It is used to:
// Get the memory address of variable num,
// then pass it as an argument to passByReference.
passByReference(&num)
console.log(num) // logs: 11

Getting DOM Elements

When you need to get the DOM element corresponding to a regular tag in the template, you can do so by adding the &handle attribute to that element:

<lang-js>
    let div = null

    onAfterMount(() => {
        console.log(div)
    })
</lang-js>

<div &handle={div}></div>

<lang-ts>
    let div!: HTMLDivElement | null = null

    onAfterMount(() => {
        console.log(div)
    })
</lang-ts>

<div &handle={div}></div>

When the element is destroyed, the reference attribute automatically resets the bound variable to null to avoid dangling references:

<lang-js>
    import { nextTick } from "qingkuai"

    let div = null
    let show = true

    function handleDestroyDiv() {
        show = false
        nextTick(() => {
            console.log(div) // logs: null
        })
    }
</lang-js>
<div #if={show} &handle={div}></div>
<button @click={handleDestroyDiv}>Destroy Div</button>

<lang-ts>
    import { nextTick } from "qingkuai"

    let show = true
    let div: HTMLDivElement | null = null

    function handleDestroyDiv() {
        show = false
        nextTick(() => {
            console.log(div) // logs: null
        })
    }
</lang-ts>
<div #if={show} &handle={div}></div>
<button @click={handleDestroyDiv}>Destroy Div</button>

Like dynamic attributes, when a reference attribute and variable share the same name, you can omit the interpolation block. So the following two forms are equivalent:

<div &handle></div>
<div &handle={handle}></div>

Form Input Processing

When handling forms, we often need to synchronize input content to variables in the embedded script. In typical usage, we might use a dynamic value attribute on an input element and listen to user input to update the variable:

<lang-js>
    let inputValue = "Initial value"
</lang-js>

The inputValue is: {inputValue}

<div>
    <input
        type="text"
        !value={inputValue}
        @input={inputValue = $arg.target.value}
    />
</div>

<lang-ts>
    let inputValue = "Initial value"
</lang-ts>

The inputValue is: {inputValue}

<div>
    <input
        type="text"
        !value={inputValue}
        @input={inputValue = ($arg.target as HTMLInputElement).value}
    />
</div>

Compared with the somewhat verbose approach above, we can now implement this more concisely through the &value reference attribute:

<lang-js>
    let inputValue = "Initial value"
</lang-js>

The inputValue is: {inputValue}

<div>
    <input
        type="text"
        &value={inputValue}
    />
</div>

Valid Values for Reference Attributes

Like in other languages that support pass-by-reference, the value of a reference attribute must be an assignable (in other languages, usually called an lvalue or addressable target) and non-constant target. You can roughly understand it as an expression that can appear on the left side of =:

<!-- Valid values -->
<p &handle={identifier}></p>
<p &handle={arr[index]}></p>
<p &handle={obj.property}></p>

<!-- Invalid values -->
<p &handle={test()}></p>
<p &handle={arr?.[index]}></p>
<p &handle={obj?.property}></p>
<p &handle={condition ? v1: v2}></p>

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