Okay, given the fact that takeFront wouldn't work with ranges like std.stdio.ByLine, the code as proposed won't work. So, here's an adjusted proposal:
https://github.com/jmdavis/phobos/commit/14b88d9d5528f8736ae6014013bba82367e83620 As suggested, I renamed takeFront and takeBack to consumeFront and consumeBack respectively, but now they're in std.array and only apply to arrays. hasConsume has been added to std.range and tests whether a particular range defines consumeFront (and if it's a bidirectional range, whether it defines consumeBack). So, rather than just using consumeFront for any and all range types as would be nice (but can't be done due to a few screwy ranges like ByLine - but such is life), a range-based function which wishes to use consumeFront or consumeBack will test with hasConsume whether the range that they're operating on defines it (similar to what we do with hasSlicing for slicing). So, it unfortunately will require special casing on the part of any function looking to use consumeFront or consumeBack, but it _does_ allow us to operate on the ranges which support it more efficiently if we decide to go to the effort of special casing them. If no one has any major objections to this scheme or can provide a better proposal, I'll create a pull request from what I have. - Jonathan M Davis
