Comment by notacoward

Excellent explanation. Too bad it's necessary. && and std::move are the biggest warts in C++ (that's saying a lot), representing the need for programmers to be constantly aware of the less-than-obvious ways that a compiler might put an expression in one category or another. It's the programmer helping the compiler, instead of the other way around as it should be. In general, if I need an rvalue and it's legal to convert the lvalue I have into an rvalue, the compiler should do it automatically. Having to make it explicit should be the exception, not the rule. The compiler does many other kinds of inference and automatic promotion/conversion, some of them far more difficult (and dangerous). Why not this one? I suspect the reason has less to do with the actual ergonomics of producing correct programs than with the the interests and self-image of those creating the standards.