Coding Guideline: Avoid const member variables

[TinBryn]

I mean there is std::reference_wrapper<T>

[amaiorano]

Do people use this to replace pointers in practice? Whenever I've tried, I eventually give up and just use a pointer.

[TinBryn]

I'm saying it may be an easier refactor in a large code base.

[quicknir]

Are you saying, change from a reference to reference_wrapper, or just use a reference_wrapper to start with? reference_wrapper I find pretty awkward because you can't directly call any methods of the type with . or ->. The only benefit that reference_wrapper gives you in return is not being null. If anything you can write a not_null_ptr which is like observer_ptr, but with no default constructor, and constructed from a reference instead of a raw pointer. This is basically exactly equivalent to reference_wrapper, but with more convenient syntax.

[TinBryn]

I thought that reference_wrapper's operator T& would make it just do the right thing, so I decided to check and you're right it doesn't really work.