>>>>> "mk" == Marcin 'Qrczak' Kowalczyk <qrczak@knm.org.pl> writes:

    mk> The only consistent syntax would be "!x <-
    mk> new_contents_of_x". Note that the revised syntax uses "x.val
    mk> <- new_contents_of_x", with x.val being equivalent to old !x
    mk> on both sides of <- and without the need of any magic syntax
    mk> for references in addition to what is available anyway for
    mk> mutable fields.

Of course, in the standard syntax you can write "x.contents <- 1" in
the same way.  Though that's quite a bit more verbose.

John.