In regards to #1, I mean we shouldn't be asked to explicitly direct the iteration of the loop. We should say "loop over these things" rather than "start from 1 and stop at 10". MOST of the time we're explicitly stating these things - that the compiler can undo - so what's the point? If the compiler is doing whatever it likes, why are we expending thought on which direction a loop should iterate?

I love that Rust has eliminated the egoism around "you should know at all times when something is allocated or deallocated". We're trusting the compiler to do that better with zero cost to us. So take it to the extreme: Only specify the loop direction if you have a true requirement to do so.

This is my Ted Talk, thank you.

For #2 - LOL! I had no idea it was essentially aliasing those functions to get around a requirement for uniqueness.