Jonathan M Davis wrote:
Also, a classic example for the use of const which immutable doesn't help you with it all is returning member variables by reference or which are reference types when you don't want the caller to be able to modify them. Without const, you couldn't do that. const is huge. I'd _hate_ to see const go. The fact that D has const is one of the best things that it has going for it IMHO. I _hate_ the fact that languages like Java don't. It drives me nuts. Sure, you _can_ write programs without const - people do it all the time - but you have far fewer guarantees about your code, and it's much harder to determine which a function may or may not alter the value of a variable when you call it.
As far as I know, D is the only language with a workable, enforcable, const system. That means we're the pioneers in getting this done right. It's up to us to show that it is an advantage.
