On Fri, 30 May 2014 16:09:59 -0400, Philippe Sigaud
<philippe.sig...@gmail.com> wrote:
On Friday, 30 May 2014 at 20:02:40 UTC, Steven Schveighoffer wrote:
If you want an opaque struct, you need to return it by pointer.
What do you mean? Like this?
Hidden* foo() { return new Hidden();}
?
Yes, this way you can control all aspects of the construction and use. You
wouldn't need to make it private even, just don't lay out the struct in
the normal import:
struct Hidden;
I think you would need to use a .di file to do this.
Otherwise, the user must be able to know what type it is (otherwise,
how would he use it?)
I just fear that by using internal, public, functions, the user might
get access to a private type. I guess the D answer to that is to make
foo private also. That makes sense.
You can make the struct's methods and data all private, which would
prevent any useful access to it. But I don't know your use case.
I now realize that I implicitly considered 'private' to be transitive
(or viral). That is that:
Hidden foo() { return Hidden();}
as foo is returning a value from a private type, it should be considered
private also. By the compiler, I mean.
No, private just makes the symbol not directly accessible. Since foo is
not private, it's accessible.
-Steve
