Why same pointer type for GC and manual memory?

[Suleyman]

On Wednesday, 13 November 2019 at 16:43:27 UTC, IGotD- wrote:
> Best example is probably managed C++, an MS extension to C++ 
> which is now deprecated.

MS Managed C++ was superseded by C++/CLI[1] which was 
standardized. They actually retained the special syntax for GC 
pointers.
One of the motivations if I understand correctly is to let the 
programmers easily distinguish which pointers should be freed and 
which ones are managed by the GC. It's not a bad idea when there 
is extensive use of both manual memory management and garbage 
collection.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%2B%2B/CLI