pass by value vs. pass by reference (idea) by Geez

Having your lover passed by reference is good if you want to establish a permanent handle on him/her.
Having your lover passed by reference is good if you want to make a difference.
Having your lover passed by value is good if you are jealous – you can make sure no one else manipulates him/her.

On the other hand,

Having your lover passed by value is good if you want a fling – manipulate him/her as much as you want, it won’t effect his/her state.
If you have your lover passed by value no one gets upset if you have him/her garbage-collected.

Niklaus Wirth calling conventions	The difference between "call by reference" and "call by value return"	You've Been Dumped	Call by name
Call by reference	Call by value return	Call by value	Jensen's device
Perl: Hashes	Semaphore	Distributed Objects	Java
pointer arithmetic	Distributed system	creating a spell checker	stack overflow
RMI	Algol 60	distributed computing	RPI
Segmentation fault	Reference	Willy nilly	Volatile