mystring

A second reason the first is better is that it clearly conveys to the next programmer that there is no intention for myString to change length during the running of the loop.

If I came across the second example I would wonder if the length of myString was changing in the loop.

You just do myString == someOtherString.

Here's one example: Using: size_t len = strlen(myString); for (int i=0; i<len; ++len) {...

> Checking for empty strings can be done with len(mystring)==0 for this reason.

IsNullOrEmpty(mystring) ){} I use that like crazy.

} Over: for (int i=0; i<strlen(myString); ++len) {...

And when you define an object method (or I don't know how it's called when you do this:) func (*string) uppercase(){ // make uppercase } Then by saying you use a pointer means you will modify the value when you do this: mystring.uppercase() So it's not really pointers, it's more an idea of pointers.

(and it can be extended to cover other, related cases..): String myString = null; if ("foobar".equals(myString)) { /*...

I wonder if something like this would be possible: (list (:myint 1) (:mystring "two") (:mysymbol 'three))?

For instance you might have "class mystring: public std::string" and they have "class theirstring:..." now you have to explicitly convert between them even if data-wise they're 100% compatible.

For example, how many copy constructors get called in this code: const std::string myString{"omg"}; std::cout << myString << (myString + myString); Most people will have to think about it for a little bit, and a lot of them will answer wrong.