On Sunday, 29 July 2012 at 09:30:06 UTC, Dmitry Olshansky wrote:
I have simpler suggestion. Maybe doing it as 2 containers:
BitSet is a plain value type with small array optimization
(what you called BitArray in last 2 posts) and no slicing (only
as opSlice() I.e. as a whole). Best used for small things under
< 1000 bits (as even dup will be cheap enough).
BitArray is class or struct that has reference smenatics and
drops small array optimization in favor of having simple & fast
slicing Best used for big arrays with no less then 100-200 bits.
As long as you only use one or the other then it sounds great;
I'm sure a conversion/constructor would be available to convert
from one to another. That does seem like the best solution, but
also feels like we're building it twice (Little code re-use).
Might be a third option: A template struct that represents a
BitArray type (with 90% of the code); you then insert a structure
with key functions that would handle the value/reference &
duplication part.
I'll meditate on it for a few days and see if anything pops up.
