I *think* the point was to avoid deprecating a *variable* that was still internally in use. Instead, we add a property, and deprecate *that* (so that *we* can still use the variable internally).

Since it used to be possible to address the variable, we make the property return by ref. So it's both get/set. The"inout" (AFAIK), just makes it that the returned qualifier is also the same as before).

@MartinNowak : Did I get it right?