This is a little subjective I think; I’m not sure if the opinion will be unanimous (I’ve seen a lot of code snippets where references are returned).
According to a comment toward this question I just asked, regarding initializing references, returning a reference can be evil because, [as I understand] it makes it easier to miss deleting it, which can lead to memory leaks.
This worries me, as I have followed examples (unless I’m imagining things) and done this in a fair few places… Have I misunderstood? Is it evil? If so, just how evil?
I feel that because of my mixed bag of pointers and references, combined with the fact that I’m new to C++, and total confusion over what to use when, my applications must be memory leak hell…
Also, I understand that using smart/shared pointers is generally accepted as the best way to avoid memory leaks.