Referencing/forward declarations

[Christopher Benson-Manica]

Are these terms semantically identical? If so, which is to be
preferred when speaking of the construct they describe?

 

[Jack Klein]

Are these terms semantically identical? If so, which is to be
preferred when speaking of the construct they describe?

What exactly is referencing? I know what a forward declaration is.

 

[E. Robert Tisdale]

Are these terms semantically identical?
If so, which is to be preferred
when speaking of the construct they describe?

struct A; // forward declaration

struct B { // definition of type struct B
struct A *p; // *p is a reference
// to an object of type struct A
};

struct A { // definition of type struct A
int I;
struct B *p; // *p is a reference
// to an object of type struct B
};