Order of arguments in glBindBuffer - c++

Question

I'm creating a VBO, populating it with data, then that data is being rendered using the following code:
// Buffer data
glGenBuffers(1, &VBOID);
glBindBuffer(VBOID, GL_ARRAY_BUFFER); // Shouldn't these be the other way around?
glBufferData(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, bufferSize, buffer, GL_STATIC_DRAW);
glVertexPointer(3, GL_FLOAT, 0, buffer);
// Draw arrays
glBindBuffer(VBOID, GL_ARRAY_BUFFER);
glEnableClientState(GL_VERTEX_ARRAY);
glDrawArrays(GL_TRIANGLES, 0, bufferSize);
glDisableClientState(GL_VERTEX_ARRAY);
However, the openGL reference (https://www.opengl.org/sdk/docs/man/html/glBindBuffer.xhtml) says that the glBindBuffer function takes the target TYPE of buffer, then the buffer ID, not the other way around. When I put them in that way around, nothing draws to the screen, however when they're the 'wrong' way around, it seems to work just fine.
To clarify:
// Should be this
glBindBuffer(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, VBOID);
// Only this works
glBindBuffer(VBOID, GL_ARRAY_BUFFER);
I feel like this is one of those really dumb issues, but I just can't see where the problem is. Could anyone shed some light on the situation?
Thanks.

Answer 1

It should definitely be written like this:
glBindBuffer(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, VBOID);
I can't explain why reversing those arguments results in successful drawing. However, there's a few oddities you have in your code that you need to revise:
glVertexPointer(3, GL_FLOAT, 0, buffer);
This is immediate mode code. I don't think it's been deprecated, but the correct way to write this is
glVertexAttribPointer(0, 3, GL_FLOAT, GL_FALSE, sizeof(GLfloat) * 3, nullptr);
On top of that, you have two references to setting client state—glEnableClientState(GL_VERTEX_ARRAY); and glDisableClientState(GL_VERTEX_ARRAY);—These are also part of immediate mode, and should be removed.
Finally, the whole thing should be wrapped up inside a Vertex Array Object, like so:
glGenVertexArrays(1, &vao);
glBindVertexArray(vao);
glGenBuffers(1, &VBOID);
glBindBuffer(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, VBOID);
glBufferData(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, bufferSize, buffer, GL_STATIC_DRAW);
glVertexAttribPointer(0, 3, GL_FLOAT, GL_FALSE, sizeof(GLfloat) * 3, nullptr);
glEnableVertexAttribArray(0);
// Draw arrays
glBindVertexArray(vao);
glDrawArrays(GL_TRIANGLES, 0, num_of_vertices); //num_of_vertices is usually the number of floats in the buffer divided by the number of dimensions of the vertex, or 3 in this case, since each vertex is a vec3 object.