Mostly agree, but:

> Don't use C API. The STL should provide you with enough API to use the proper C++ types, either std::string or std::string_view in C++17 if possible.

Sometimes you're working with C API that gives you back a char * that they've already allocated. AFAIK there isn't a way to create an std::string out of that without a copy.

> you can't static_cast<> a pointer

You can static_cast a void * into other kinds of pointers.

> use std::array

Do you mean std::vector and at()?