In your C++ example you're giving `std::mismatch`, which is a generic algorithm. If you're so inclined you could provide a wrapper that has the same interface as the Go example, but you're comparing apples to oranges. I'd argue that `std::mismatch` is much _more_ pragmatic than the Go example, in that I can use it to check any lists of user defined types.

In reality, these two methods do completely different things. `std::mismatch` is a completely generic algorithm that 'returns the first mismatching pair of elements from two ranges', which can be used for much more than `strings.HasPrefix`.

> The Go standard library is full of things that do exactly what you want them to, whereas in other languages you have to manually do it yourself.

Sorting a slice is a pretty obvious counterexample.

> The Go standard library is full of things that do exactly what you want them to, whereas in other languages you have to manually do it yourself.

No.

Python: toCheck.startswith(prefix)

JavaScript: toCheck.startsWith(prefix)

Haskell: prefix `isPrefixOf` toCheck

What other languages does Go compete with that don't have a "string starts with" in their standard library.

Since I feel I've proven my point about all other languages Go competes with having this function, what other helpful functions do you think Go has that it's competitors do not?

  to see if a string starts with another string in C++

As others have pointed out, while a person could use

  std::mismatch

C++'s std::basic_string type has a compare method. So, the Go example you presented:

  strings.HasPrefix(toCheck, prefix)

Could be expressed in Standard C++ as:

  toCheck.compare (0, prefix.length (), prefix) == 0;

Oh wow, string prefix checking is the example you want to run with? In C#:

  toCheck.StartsWith(prefix)

Meanwhile in Golandia, this is still an issue:

https://github.com/golang/go/issues/16721#issuecomment-24015...

...and I haven't felt this kind of pinch when using C#, ever. But what do I know? I'm just a .NET wage-slave pleb who's too mentally handicapped to see Go's glory.