Alex Hoppen 3fb5dd1c68 [libSyntax] Create SyntaxRef, which uses SyntaxDataRef internally ...

Now that we have a fast SyntaxDataRef, create a corresponding SyntaxRef hierarchy. In contrast to the Syntax, SyntaxRef does *not* own the backing SyntaxDataRef, but merely has a pointer to the SyntaxDataRef.
In addition to the requirements imposed by SyntaxDataRef, the user of the SyntaxRef hierarchy needs to make sure that the backing SyntaxDataRef of a SyntaxRef node stays alive. While this sounds like a lot of requirements, it has performance advantages:
 - Passing a SyntaxRef node around is just passing a pointer around.
 - When casting a SyntaxRef node, we only need to create a new SyntaxRef (aka. pointer) that points to the same underlying SyntaxDataRef - there's no need to duplicate the SyntaxDataRef.
 - As SyntaxDataRef is not ref-counted, there's no ref-counting overhead involved.

Furthermore, the requirements are typically fulfilled. The getChild methods on SyntaxRef return an OwnedSyntaxRef, which stores the SyntaxDataRef. As long as this variable is stored somewhere on the stack, the corresponding SyntaxRef can safely be used for the duration of the stack frame. Even calls like the following are possible, because OwnedSyntaxRef returned by getChild stays alive for the duration of the entire statement.
```
useSyntaxRef(mySyntaxRef.getChild(0).getRef())
```

2021-03-11 19:34:49 +01:00

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