The type of h isn't so hard to understand, there. |auto| gives you a value; if you want a reference, use |auto&|. This rule actually makes |auto| more readable:

The type of h isn't so hard to understand, there. |auto| gives you a value; if you want a reference, use |auto&|. This rule actually makes |auto| more readable: you always know if you're looking at a reference or not. Probably you expected |auto| to behave like |decltype()|, C++11's other form of type deduction, which gives you the actual type of an expression. C++14 adds |decltype(auto)|, which lets you declare local variables using this behavior if you want it. I'm not sure whether I'd apply Herb's AAA rule quite as broadly as he suggests, but I think it's broadly right, because far too often in C++ we write a type twice on the same line, which is just redundant. I vastly prefer |auto val = new MyClass;| to |MyClass val = new MyClass;|, and similarly |auto casted = static_cast<MyType>(uncasted);| is completely readable without typing writing "MyType" a second time. C++ programmers are a conservative lot, but I expect using |auto| at least in those cases to be pretty mainstream within a few years.