title: Manipulating blobs in C++
body: <p>I will be reading and writing large chucks of a large binary file.</p>
  
  <p>Is there a class in standard C++ or upcoming standard C++ or upcoming standard C++ + boost, that will make my task easier?</p>
  
  <p>If not would it be possible to use the string class for this? What would be the dangers of doing so?</p>
  
  <p>PS: A few observations that will clarify things. I expect that the blobs will be passed around a lot, so a container that is reference counted and CoW would probably be preferable.</p>
  
  <p>Also my resistance to using a string class is twofold: these are blobs, not strings, "unprintable characters" and in particular nulls may cause difficulties when they appear.</p>