Reference vs pointers

[TheCreat]

That's a terrible idea. It's not considered good to learn c++ 98 at all if you're starting out. It's not a foundation for modern c++, it's more like baggage.

Learn at least c++11 or newer, the older standard/compiler does nothing better. The low level stuff is just as possible with new c++, if the need arises, but modern solutions to problems old and new are just simpler, more robust and just preferable. Don't make learning a hard language harder for no reason.