> Depending on the language the ampersand could mean by copy or by reference
Yikes. Which languages use ampersand to signal passing by value? That's a massive footgun if I'm ever cargo-culting my way through writing some code in one of those languages for the first time.
I generally learn a new language by cargo-culting my way through a few small-ish programs. I wouldn't put anything in production in a language that I didn't adequately understand, but I could certainly waste a bunch of time debugging if I got the meaning of & flipped.
Yikes. Which languages use ampersand to signal passing by value? That's a massive footgun if I'm ever cargo-culting my way through writing some code in one of those languages for the first time.