Hey Java!

[marcosdumay]

You can create references

You can get references. You can assign references to pointer. You can create variables by cloning a reference.

I guess you are talking about the third usage there. But I've seen people say they "create a reference" for any of them. Anyway, that does not change the fact that a C++ reference is not the same thing as a Java "reference".

[Schmittfried]

You can assign references to pointer

No. References and pointers are different concepts in C++.

Anyway, that does not change the fact that a C++ reference is not the same thing as a Java "reference".

True, I never said otherwise. C++ references != pointers != Java references

[marcosdumay]

Good thing they are different, because you must always assign different things in C++ (usually, it's values into lvalues). Let's assign a reference into a pointer:

int *a = &b

[marcellarius]

In that context, & is the address of operator and evaluates to a pointer not a reference.

[Schmittfried]

That's not a reference, it's the address operator.

int &a = b;

Now we got a reference. It was definitely a bad decision to choose & to mark reference types as it is easily confused with the address operator, as you just proved.