On Mon, 19 Oct 2009 23:31:37 +0400, Andrei Alexandrescu
<seewebsiteforem...@erdani.org> wrote:
Don wrote:
Walter Bright wrote:
The purpose of T[new] was to solve the problems T[] had with passing
T[] to a function and then the function resizes the T[]. What happens
with the original?
The solution we came up with was to create a third array type, T[new],
which was a reference type.
Andrei had the idea that T[new] could be dispensed with by making a
"builder" library type to handle creating arrays by doing things like
appending, and then delivering a finished T[] type. This is similar to
what std.outbuffer and std.array.Appender do, they just need a bit of
refining.
The .length property of T[] would then become an rvalue only, not an
lvalue, and ~= would no longer be allowed for T[].
We both feel that this would simplify D, make it more flexible, and
remove some awkward corner cases like the inability to say a.length++.
What do you think?
Since noone else seems to have said it: The fact that you're both
willing to let it go, after having already invested a lot of time in
it, is a good sign for the language. Well done.
I'm relieved that somebody mentioned that :o). As soon as we gave up
with T[new], people started to sell it to us. We should preemptively
post about eliminating feature plans before actually implementing them.
By the way: implementation of @property has been canceled.
Andrei
I *really* hope you told it so that we encourage actually implementing it!
I strongly believe attributes and properties are very important for D.
