I think lists as arrays is just example of what can be used instead of pointers. Also section was titled "representation something" so probably it is just one p

I think lists as arrays is just example of what can be used instead of pointers. Also section was titled "representation something" so probably it is just one possible low level representation of linked lists. And Val can have standard library of lists, including represented as arrays with build in online reindexing. But this makes Val high level lang so not really system programming language... But what irks me is: why not just program in plain C with passing structs by value ?? All aliasing will be gone and probably compilers already know how to deal with that. "Becouse somehing_hard_to use is included" is just dumbing thing down and not gaining much. Lack out of bound indexes checking ? That's like one function. Call it everywhere :) Programmers need to learn dealing with reality (what features CPU's gives) instead of being castrated. Becouse moving problem somewhere else do not annihilate problems. Maybe we need high level CPU's and some hw level guarantees some engineers can bake in :) But that can end like hardware on call register saving :)