you are proposing a slightly different task I'm not proposing a different task, I'm pointing out that you both thought it was trivial and both ended up doing a

you are proposing a slightly different task I'm not proposing a different task, I'm pointing out that you both thought it was trivial and both ended up doing arrays of arrays then having something that wouldn't work because of the complexities of that. You're right that someone could solve the problem with arrays of arrays, but no one did. I think the problem is mostly trivial too, but before doing graphics programming and solving almost identical problems multiple times, I would have made most of the same mistakes.