Hello community,

Is it possible to accomplish the following using ref instead of pointers? If so, please share an example.

import std.stdio;

// Represents our large, external data source (like TimeSeries)
struct DataSource
{
    int[3] data;
}

// Represents our Backtester engine
struct Engine
{
    // It STORES a pointer to its data source. This is its "memory".
    const(DataSource)* dataSource;

    // The run method USES the stored pointer.
    void run()
    {
        writeln("Engine running...");
        if (dataSource is null)
        {
            writeln("  Error: Data source not configured!");
            return;
        }

        // We access the data through the remembered pointer.
        foreach (i, val; dataSource.data)
        {
            writef("  Processing data point %d: %d\n", i, val);
        }
    }
}

void main()
{
    writeln("--- Running Pointer Member Example ---");

    // 1. Create our data. It lives here in main.
    auto myData = DataSource([10, 20, 30]);

    // 2. Create our engine. It starts empty.
    auto myEngine = Engine();
    writeln("Engine created. Has it been configured yet?");
    myEngine.run(); // Will fail because the pointer is null

    // 3. Configure the engine. We give it the ADDRESS of our data.
    //    The engine stores this address in its pointer member.
    writeln("\nConfiguring engine...");
    myEngine.dataSource = &myData;

    // 4. Later, we run the engine. It can now work because it
    //    remembered the address of myData.
    writeln("\nRunning configured engine...");
    myEngine.run();
}

Thanks,
-- confuzzled