> It is not just VB programmers, its any programmers of modern OOP languages like VB, VB.Net (which is different from VB, just has the same style of syntax), C#, Java and others.
VB has references:
Sub Foo(ByRef X As String)
X = "Foo"
End Sub
C++ has references:
void Foo(string &X) {
X = *new string("Foo");
}
Perl has references:
sub Foo {
$_[0] = "Foo";
}
FORTRAN only has references. Java does not. Smalltalk does not. Common-Lisp does not. Most lisps do not. Python does not. Most C++ programmers don't use them. Perl goes through enormous contortions to detect problems at run-time caused by references. As far as I know the only language with the encouraged and pervasive use of references is Visual Basic.
Perhaps you're confusing references with something else?