Chapter 13: Referenceslinear-chapter13

Co-authored-by: Thalia Archibald <thalia@archibald.dev>
Co-authored-by: Dibyendu Majumdar <mobile@majumdar.org.uk>
Co-authored-by: XmiliaH <45106915+XmiliaH@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: Robert Obkircher <robert.obkircher@gmail.com>

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+# Chapter 13: References
+
+In this chapter, we add references and structs.
+
+You can also read [this chapter](https://github.com/SeaOfNodes/Simple/tree/linear-chapter13) in a linear Git revision history on the [linear](https://github.com/SeaOfNodes/Simple/tree/linear) branch and [compare](https://github.com/SeaOfNodes/Simple/compare/linear-chapter12...linear-chapter13) it to the previous chapter.
+
+## References
+
+Structs can reference other structs; references can be mutually recursive.
+Any reference field can allow null or not, same as a normal variable.
+
+```java
+struct Person {
+  String name;       // No string type, yet
+  int age;
+  FamilyTree tree?;  // A family tree, or not
+}
+struct FamilyTree {
+  Person father?;    // FamilyTree can reference Person
+  Person mother?;
+  Person []kids?;
+}
+```
+
+Normal field syntax works:  
+e.g. `person.tree.father = new Person;` or 
+     `person.tree.father.name = "Dad";`.
+
+Reference fields all start out null, and can be tested as such.  However, a
+non-null reference field can only be stored with a non-null ref.
+
+```java
+struct N { N next; int i; }
+N n = new N;
+return n.next;  // Value reports as null, despite field typed as not-null
+```
+
+And:
+
+```java
+struct N { N next; int i; }
+N n = new N;
+n.next = null; // <<-- Compile error, cannot store null into not-null field
+return n.next;
+```