In c and assembly the terms reference and pointer are sometimes used interchangeably. An lval is a reference to a value, * is the dereference operator, and so f

In c and assembly the terms reference and pointer are sometimes used interchangeably. An lval is a reference to a value, * is the dereference operator, and so forth. I don't know the spec admittedly but I've seen the terms used interchangeably in compiler code and documentation. I think c++ began distinguishing between and defining references as distinct from pointers, and java removed explicit pointers entirely and generates them and dereferences them automatically for objects.