Walter has magically converted his work on T[new] into work on making
associative arrays true templates defined in druntime and not considered
very special by the compiler.
This is very exciting because it opens up or simplifies a number of
possibilities. One is that of implementing true iteration. I actually
managed to implement last night something that allows you to do:
int[int] aa = [ 1:1 ];
auto iter = aa.each;
writeln(iter.front.key);
writeln(iter.front.value);
Two other iterations are possible: by key and by value (in those cases
iter.front just returns a key or a value).
One question is, what names should these bear? I am thinking of makign
opSlice() a universal method of getting the "all" iterator, a default
that every container must implement.
For AAs, there would be a "iterate keys" and "iterate values" properties
or functions. How should they be called?
Thanks,
Andrei
