FAQ 11.12 Why do some people hate references?

Most of the complaints we've heard about references have come from C programmers who are new to C++, and the complaints reflect a combination of teaching old dogs new tricks and the lack of good training on what references are all about.

It often takes C programmers time to get used to references. In the beginning, C programmers typically complain that pass-by-reference doesn't require explicit syntax in the caller's source code (for example, no & in the caller code). After using C++ for a while, however, developers realize that this is information hiding, which is an asset rather than a liability.

An important goal of OO technology is to enable developers to program in the language of the problem domain rather than the language of the computer. The information hiding provided by a reference is a small step in the migration.

In C, the maxim is "No hidden mechanism." C++ intentionally discards this C maxim since it is inconsistent with the C++ goal of programming in the language of the problem domain rather than the language of the machine. The new maxim is "Pay for it only if you use it."

Write C++ code in the language of the problem domain, not the language of the machine.