The implementation described looks so simple and reasonable; it is surprising what c++ actually ended up with, which is basically the type from the OP except th

The implementation described looks so simple and reasonable; it is surprising what c++ actually ended up with, which is basically the type from the OP except that std::vector<bool> behaves incompatibility from every other vector and a std::vector<char> is slower than any other non-bool vector in mysterious ways.