Passing function arguments as parameters in JavaScript

Introduction

When used as function arguments in JavaScript, number and string objects are compared by value, and functions are compared by reference... array objects (arrays) seem to be the only option for passing arguments by reference, so we'll simply wrap an array of size 1 into a new object class that sets/gets the first element:

function param()
{
    this.array = new Array(1);

    this.setValue = function(v) { this.array[0] = v; }
    this.getValue = function()  { return this.array[0]; }
}

It's a simple object with a 1-element internal array that will hold anything (even an object reference), exposing two simple assignment and retrieval methods.

You would typically use it in situations where you need more than one return value.

// declare a variable as a parameter

var s = new param;

// issue a function call using the parameter

var o = output(dText.innerHTML, s, 'Hello, world.');

// the function is obviously designed to treat the 2nd argument as a parameter...

function output(arg1, arg2, arg3)
{
  ...
  // ...so that eventually it can assign a value to it.

  arg2.setValue(a + b % 10);
  ...
}

// when ready to retrieve the output value, use the retrieval function.

dResult.innerHTML += s.getValue() + ' (' + o + ')';

And that's it. You can declare and pass-in as many parameters as you like, as long as your code handles them through the member functions; you can also use the internal array property if you need to handle the argument as an array, say to concatenate with other arrays, etc.

Why not use a one-sized array directly? Good, valid question. Actually, I just wanted to improve the code's readability, and this looked better than handling the 0^th element around in functions. Maybe it's a waste of time, but hey, I'm into the "slow down" way of things now.