[gpderetta]

> The problem is that the default C++ string class is so utterly godawfully stupid. No garbage collection? Check. No refcounting? Check.

the irony is that in 2010, many std::string implementations were in fact reference counted (including libstdc++). This was generally considered a major mistake (because it doesn't work well with threads and when it does is a major performance pitfall) and prohibited in C++11.