references are not strictly speaking pointers but functionally very similar I have more than a passing familiarity with C and Perl. References and pointers ar

references are not strictly speaking pointers but functionally very similar I have more than a passing familiarity with C and Perl. References and pointers are very different. For example, you have to know where you allocated the memory pointed to to work with pointers effectively. You can also lie to the compiler about the type of pointer. You can also do math with pointers. These are very useful things to do in C (or assembly or C++ or whichever languages give you access to raw memory), but you don't have to do any of those things in Perl because you don't have access to raw memory. Similarly you can get into a circular reference situation with references that you won't normally find in C unless you have a specific type of garbage collector. disputing the naming seems like nit-picking Accuracy is important in programming. The difference between lightning and lightning bugs is not merely degree.