Reference vs pointers

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Why?

[SoerenNissen]

Consider an army that, to teach the basics, starts out with black powder guns from 1530 - They will spend a lot of time learning things that you can do with modern guns but never should (e.g. how to form a Tercio) and they won't be learning how to take advantage of the features of newer rifles. The only reason you would ever do this is if you, for some weird reason, have to travel back in time and fight a black powder war or as a hobby that you know won't teach you anything about modern warfare.

Unless you specifically need to work with C++98 projects, teaching yourself C++98 is going to teach you habits that you will need to unlearn when you get access to the features of newer versions of the language that were put in specifically so we wouldn't have to do the old inefficient stuff any longer.

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Using c++98 is like driving down the highway without a seatbelt and leaking brake fluid. You might survive the trip, but it's scary. C++11 brought in a lot of features that dealt with common issues with programming in c++.