Ordinarily, a type parameter X can be instantiated with any type.

However, in some cases, it is desirable to say that X is only allowed to be instantiated by types that have certain characteristics. One such characteristic is that the type does not have any references.

A “reference”, here, refers to a type that is or contains a reference type. Reference types are class and trait types. So, if a type parameter is restricted to only “no reference” types, then you cannot instantiate it with a class type or a trait type. A datatype can also include a reference. For example, datatype MyDatatype = Ctor(x: MyClass) More subtly, a type datatype D = Ctor(x: X) might also contain a reference type if `X` is a type that can contain a reference type.

If you’re getting the “no reference” error, then you’re either trying to write an unbounded quantifier over a type that may contain references, or you’re trying to use a type that may contain references to instantiate a type parameter restricted to no-reference types. Type characteristics that a type parameter must satisfy are written in parentheses after the type name and are separated by commas. For example, to say that a type parameter X must not contain any references, you would declare it as X(!new). To further ensure it supports compile-time equality, you would declare it as X(!new,==). Presumably, you’re trying to instantiate a type parameter like X(!new) with a type that may contain references.

There is more discussion of type parameter characteristics in the reference manual.