In
C++, in every
member function, a pointer called
this is defined to point to the object for which the member function was called. Without the
this pointer, member functions could not be used for
linked list manipulation (among other things).
this is a pointer and not a reference because when it was introduced in C with Classes the language didn't have references.
It is the equivelent of Simula's THIS reference, and is called this rather than self because C++ borrows its terminology from Simula rather than Smalltalk.