Dereferencing a function pointer

[Sarkoff]

What is the difference between dereferencing a function pointer explicitly vs. dereferencing one implicitly? My book says they both work equally well. However are there any performance issues or other minor issues I should be aware of?

[redhead]

To quote Peter's notes

The first method is with an implicit conversion to pointer:

       funcptr = f;

The second method is with an explicit manufacture of a pointer:

       funcptr = &f;

Both ways are completely equivalent (AFAIK) and completely legal. You might think that the explicit method is more consistent because it's analogous to how we get the address of objects. However, the first method is shorter and cleaner. It's up to you.

And to widen the explanation with some wise words from The C++ Tutorial

The implicit dereference method looks just like a normal function call — which is what you’d expect, since normal function names are pointers to functions anyway! However, some older compilers do not support the implicit dereference method, but all modern compilers should.

So there you have it, they are the same, however, some older compilers wont support implicit dereferencing.