idiomatic D: what to use instead of pointers in constructing a tree data structure?

[Laeeth Isharc via Digitalmars-d-learn]

  Not true. If you're using a tree structure, you *should* use
> pointers.
> Unless you're using classes, which are by-reference, in which 
> case you
> can just use the class as-is. :-)

Thanks v much.

I just came to that realization also when I stepped away.

class node
{
	string name;
	node ref;
}

what's wrong with the code above ?  i get an error no identifier 
for declarator node.  (I have not used classes much, since 
structs often seem to be enough for what I need to do mostly).