Self-optimizing data structures: using types to make lists faster

I didn't know C++ had lazy-functional semantics.

Hmm. No, its not about making it strict -- (!) already does that. It is about changing the representation entirely, so that you get specialized code and data for every different type, rather than reusing slower, general purpose functions.

The code examples show the different, as do the pictures of the heap.

This is some kind of extremely aggressive, but uniform, specialization.

Failure is part of the process of understanding something.

I would guess that if you limited your ambition of using all the features in the language to something you almost know well, after making some programs using that feature-set, I'd guess you'll see the need for some better feature, and there's a good chance it already exists.

Does not that sound reasonable to you?