On Wednesday, 16 January 2013 at 19:29:59 UTC, mist wrote:
Mixins and templates are tools to avoid copy-paste, there is no
point to using them just for the sake of that. I have already
mentioned that first example is not related to copy-paste and
thus not fixable with that, it is more related to alias. Second
is fixed perfectly in D using string mixins and single template
unary operator with much more readable code.
String mixin are uglier than C-macros, IMO.
(No, I'm not saying they're worse. They're just uglier, visually
speaking.)
I avoid string mixins as much as possible.
Not to mention they're quite intensive work for the compiler to
do compared to a regular declaration, which creates obvious
problems.
My point is - when you have a lot repetitive text pieces in
your code, it is much better in longer scope to use advanced
language tools instead of advanced editing tools.
Only if the increase in ugliness is worth the ease of editing.
And this is one place where D is so superior do C++.
Sure, but that's an unrelated discussion.
I must admit I'd prefer to have template mixins allowed for
statements to minimize string mixin usage but it is still much
much better than copy-paste in my opinion.
The problem with the idea of a mixin is that it's just ___too
much abstraction___.
It's almost like making a FactoryFactorFactory in Java, except
now you have a MyClassOperatorMixinTemplate or something like
that.
I don't know about you, but I just don't believe in abstracting
away every single character I type.
