On Sunday, October 30, 2011 17:29:36 bearophile wrote:
> I have translated C code similar to:
>
>
> something foo(int n) {
> int *array = malloc(n * sizeof(int));
>
> int i;
> for (...) {
> for (i = 0; i < n; i++, array++) {
> *array = ...;
> *array = ...;
> }
> ...
> }
>
>
> Into D2 code similar to:
>
>
> something foo(int n) {
> auto array = new int[n];
>
> size_t index;
> foreach (...) {
> foreach (i; 0 .. n) {
> array[index] = ...;
> *array = ...;
> index++;
> }
> ...
> }
>
>
> Do you see the bug I have found during the debugging?
>
> I think the D2 compiler has to catch this bug:
>
> *array = ...;
>
> D arrays aren't pointers. Letting the compiler see them as pointers is
> bug-prone, not tidy, and doesn't help D newbies understand how D represents
> its arrays.
>
>
> My bug report:
> http://d.puremagic.com/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=3990
>
>
> Some very good comments about this topic:
> http://www.digitalmars.com/webnews/newsgroups.php?art_group=digitalmars.D&ar
> ticle_id=135391
Arrays in D implicitly convert to their ptr property, so they essentially
_are_ pointers in that sense. Now, personally, I think that it would be a good
idea for them _not_ to implicitly convert, forcing you to explicitly use the
ptr property, since you really shouldn't be treating arrays as pointers in D
code. It's primarily when interacting with C code that you need to do that
sort of thing, and the ptr property deals with it just fine.
However, I don't think that you're going to find a general consensus that the
implicit conversion is bad, and changing it now would likely break a lot of
code. So, while I do think that it would be a good change, I really don't
think that it's going to happen at this point.
- Jonathan M Davis
