This operator is provided for aesthetics and for compatibility reasons. A proxy is not pointer-like: it does not hold a value and can't be null. Calling greeter->greet("bob") is 100% equivalent to calling greeter.greet("bob") when greeter is a GreeterPrx proxy. An advantage of the arrow syntax is it's the same whether greeter is a GreeterPrx, an optional<GreeterPrx>, or a smart pointer like in earlier versions of Ice. It's also aesthetically pleasing when making invocations: the proxy appears like a pointer to the remote object.
1.14.0 