He's likely referencing that you would need to use different syntax and style, like re-assigning a variable or chaining calls, like when working with a String in Java.

In C, you can simply mutate the underlying characters. So changing the fifth character in a string is as easy as:

    str[4] = 0;

   str = str.substr(0, 4) + "\0" + str.substr(4);

Well, yes, that's how it becomes convenient in general. But why would you be doing things like that when communicating between threads?