Ian Collins said:
That concept depends on whether there reader is familiar with languages
that *do* support references and passing by reference. Best keep
phraseology unambiguous in a programming group.
C supports references, even true function references.
From ISO/IEC 9899:1999 (E):
»... by use of its associated header (assuredly generating
a true function reference) ...«
(All the following quotations are from ISO/IEC 9899:1999 (E), too.)
There are several kinds of references in C:
One kind are those references that are resolved by the linker:
»... 8. All external object and function references are
resolved. Library components are linked to satisfy
external references to functions and objects not defined
in the current translation. ... «
»Because cels has external linkage and is referenced, an
external definition has to appear in another translation
unit (see 6.9); the inline definition and the external
definition are distinct and either may be used for the
call.«
»An inline definition of a function with external linkage
shall not contain a definition of a modifiable object with
static storage duration, and shall not contain a reference
to an identifier with internal linkage.«
»... it shall first be included before the first reference
to any of the functions or objects ...«
»... may be included after the initial reference to the
identifier ...«
There there are references to types:
»... Provided that a library function can be declared
without reference to any type defined in a header ...«
And some values might provide references to entities:
»A pointer type may be derived from a function type, an
object type, or an incomplete type, called the referenced
type. A pointer type describes an object whose value
provides a reference to an entity of the referenced type.
A pointer type derived from the referenced type T is
sometimes called "pointer to T". The construction of a
pointer type from a referenced type is called "pointer
type derivation".«
(The standard adds even more meanings to the word »reference«,
which the reader can find using a full-text search.)
According to me, the general meaning of the word, compatible
with all uses in ISO/IEC 9899:1999 (E), is as follows:
»A reference to an entity e is a piece of information about where
to locate/reach this entity e, it is a specification/description
of the (abstract) location of e.«