well technically using . in alias names is not really mIRC's format.
there are some intrinsic identifiers that dont use arguments however like i said the actual format is not as important.
I dont think forcing the () empty argument list would even be worth the time since the following 2 lines only differ by one byte
$blah(1).prop -and-
$blah().prop
however mIRC could check to see if the alias using the . existed and if such call it otherwise call the alias with the prop
On idea 2 the main reason for refferences would be fewer calls to identifiers.
assume you have an alias wich returns color values for several properties such as text bg etc.. using the original method
var %color = $get_clr(text)
use %color
%color = $get_clr(bg)
use %color
using the returned token idea
var %color_tokens = $get_clr
parse token 1 for text color and use it
parse token 2 for colors and use it
using refferences
var %clrText,%clrBkg
$get_clr(%clrText,%clrBkg)
use both as you wish
With only two arguments you only see a slight advantage but imaging one that needs to accept 5 or 8 arguments
using method one you call the alias 5 to 8 times.
using the token method you call the alias once then parse the return value (another call to an identifer) 5 to 8 times.
Using refferences you call the alias once and your done. This can be heaps faster and smaller.
