Explanation of list reference

[Jussi Piitulainen]

dave em writes:

> He is asking a question I am having trouble answering which is how a
> variable containing a value differs from a variable containing a
> list or more specifically a list reference.

My quite serious answer is: not at all. In particular, a list is a
value.

All those pointers to references to locations are implementation
details. The user of the language needs to understand that an object
keeps its identity when it's passed around: passed as an argument,
returned by a function, stored in whatever location, retrieved from
whatever location.