Why were references added to C++? (from the history viewpoint)

Question

I've read many discussions on the difference between references and pointers and when to use which. They all seem to get their conclusions from analysis of the behaviors of the two.

But I'd still like to know what was in the language designers' mind. What's the main motive for this design? In what typical situation is it intended to be used? Perhaps the answer is already included in the discussions I mentioned, but I want to know which are authentic.

P.S. Does reference have a history as long as pointer in C++? Was it originated from the very beginning or came up as a patch for some situations? Thanks a lot.

Answer 1

From the FAQ:

Even though a reference is often implemented using an address in the underlying assembly language, please do not think of a reference as a funny looking pointer to an object. A reference is the object. It is not a pointer to the object, nor a copy of the object. It is the object.

Along with this article it should answer some of your questions (most likely except for the history). You can always dig into the standard, but I find it unlikely that there will be any nice tale about the origin of references...

Answer 2

Here's Stroustrup's reasons for adding them to the language.

Basically they were mainly added to support operator overloading.