Eliminate pointers passed between functions via channels, etc.

[hydrogen18]

We have lots of code passing values around by passing around a pointer. For small values there is very little advantage to this, as it just puts more stress on the Garbage collector since it must check these pointers.

We should refactor this into just passing values where it makes sense.

[boz]

I sometimes use it to have a unique identifier for something that will be passed to the channel and back.