[kqr]

This reasoning seems to me similar to how declaring a pointer in e.g. C works: many beginners write

    int* a, b;

And think that this constructs two pointers-to-integer. In fact, it constructs one pointer and one plain integer. A better (equivalent) way to write it is

    int *a, b;

You're not declaring variables of type

   int*

You're saying that b is an int and

    *a 

Is an int, where the asterisk means "the dereferenced a"!

[pwdisswordfish4]

Beginners and also C++ programmers, expert and beginner alike. Even though it’s just as misleading in C++. This:

    int a = 0;
    int& x = a, y = a;

declares x to be a reference, but y an independent variable. Similarly, a template parametrised by a variadic pack of function pointers is declared thus:

    template <void (*...x)(void)>

It’s a good thing I don’t work in C++ too often, because my forehead would have probably sustained noticeable injury from all the facepalming each time I see ‘int& x’ instead of ‘int &x’ and ‘typename... T’ instead of ‘typename ...T’.