New Age C++ Weak Pointers and Circular References in C++ 11 In both .NET and Java, the garbage collector is smart enough to detect and release circular references. Dealing with circular references in ...

Knowing how references really differ from pointers should help you decide when to use references and when to stick with pointers. In C++, references provide many of the same capabilities as pointers.

No, at least for references (avoiding pointers where possible is a good idea, and will be even more feasible once C++11's new move semantics become widespread).

Rc::clone (&p) simply returns the pointer p and increments the reference count for *p by 1. The reference count for *q is decremented by 1, and, since it’s now 0, the storage for *q is reclaimed.