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> "We'll instead take and return the vector directly"

Won't this clone it?

Not necessarily, although it's a bit complicated to understand in C++.

Starting with C++17, there is a feature called guaranteed copy elision that works for many/most scenarios that you would want. You need to read through the following resources to understand it fully:

https://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/language/copy_elision https://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/language/value_category

> Not necessarily, although it's a bit complicated to understand in C++.

One could say this statement applies to most lines of C++ code. Lol

Indeed :)

Makes me appreciate the explicit copy() and ref semantics in Rust.

Although I bet in most cases such a method gets inlined so it doesn't matter.

Copy elision exists, the author might just assume (or know) it'll trigger. The rules are way too arcane for me so I could not tell.

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