The real problem is that "const" in C/C++ is a misnomer - the literal meaning of the word means "unchanging", and yet if you have a pointer or reference to a const T, it can, in fact, change. A "const pointer" in C is really a read-only pointer to some data that may or may not be actually constant.

In C, at least, you can usually distinguish a true pointer to immutable data by using `restrict`.