Manu:
> The tendency to encourage use of dynamic arrays will be a major problem.
I don't know how much big that problem will be, D dynamic arrays are quite
handy, but I agree that static arrays need to be encouraged more in D (and
currently most algorithms of Phobos don't work with static arrays (you need to
slice them first)).
Currently even this code with a stack-allocated fixed size array causes a heap
allocation (DMD):
void main() {
int[2] a = [1, 2];
}
ASM, optimized build:
__Dmain comdat
push EAX
push EAX
mov EAX,offset FLAT:_D12TypeInfo_xAi6__initZ
push EBX
push 8
push 2
push EAX
call near ptr __d_arrayliteralTX ; heap allocation
add ESP,8
mov EBX,EAX
mov dword ptr [EAX],1
mov ECX,EBX
push EBX
lea EDX,0Ch[ESP]
mov dword ptr 4[EBX],2
push EDX
call near ptr _memcpy
add ESP,0Ch
xor EAX,EAX
pop EBX
add ESP,8
ret
I have suggested to add a safer version of VLAs to avoid some heap-allocated
dynamic arrays:
http://d.puremagic.com/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=5348
Most people here seem to not care of the Ada language, but if you take a look
at Ada code you see how often it doesn't use heap allocations.
Bye,
bearophile
