References vs Pointers

Hey folks!

Okay... simple one.

I have a test program to illustrate what I am working with.  The class is
fixed - I cannot change its definition.

class myclass
{
public :
    int *i;
};

// receive a reference to an int in the 2nd param.
void setval(myclass obj, int & x)
{
    obj.i = x;
}

int main(void)
{
    myclass mc;
    int j = 10;

    setval(mc, j);

    return 0;
}

If I compile this, I get:

$ gcc -o ptrref ptrref.cpp
ptrref.cpp: In function ‘void setval(myclass, int&)’:
ptrref.cpp:9: error: invalid conversion from ‘int’ to ‘int*’

Now, I was under the impression that references were just a fancy word for
pointers, ie: a reference is an address of an object.  So, why can I not
assign the reference to a pointer variable?  Missing something, not sure
what.

Cheers!
Jon

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