[epcoa]

That I think the description “the array is not the string” isn’t very elucidating for someone that doesn’t understand the nuance of the ownership/lifetime and move semantics (the topic of the article).

“C++ obfuscates this distinction because of how it automatically deep copies vectors and strings”

It does this because it has to, to guarantee its interface invariants. That “array” (if there is one) really is the string. Just because there might be an indirection doesn’t change that.

> they just operate on that data differently.

Well they operate on the memory “array” of the char data differently (well in the latter not at all).

Also a nitpick: std::string unlike String in Rust or other languages is not married to an encoding. And C++ managed to fuck that one up even more so recently.