On Tuesday, 18 September 2012 at 17:59:04 UTC, Jonathan M Davis
wrote:
On Tuesday, September 18, 2012 17:05:26 monarch_dodra wrote:
This is issue #1: I'd propose that all objects in std.random be
migrated to classes (or be made reference structs), sooner than
later. This might break some code, so I do not know how this is
usually done, but I think it is necessary. I do not, however,
propose that they should all derive from a base class.
Moving to classes would definitely break code, but it should be
possible to
make them reference types simply by making it so that their
internal state is
in a separate object held by a pointer.
I was thinking of doing that. The problem with this (as I've run
into and stated in another thread), is a problem of
initialization: The simpler PRNGs are init'ed seeded, and are
ready for use immediately. Changing to this approach would break
the initialization, as shown in this post:
http://forum.dlang.org/thread/[email protected]#post-yvtsivozyhqzscgddbrl:40forum.dlang.org
A "used to be valid" PRNG has now become an un-initialized PRNG".
This is extremely insidious, as the code still compiles, but will
crash.
I'm hoping my thread goes somewhere, but since I doubt it, I've
thought up of two other solutions for a "clean" migration:
#1
Keep as struct (as you suggest), but use the opCall hack. I HATE
this solution.
#2
Change to class, but leave behind some "opCall"s for each old
constructor, plus an extra one for default:
class A
{
static A opCall(){return new A();}
static A opCall(int i){return new A(i);}
this(){}
this(int){}
/// ...
}
void main()
{
A a1 = A(); //Works AND constructs
A a2 = A(5); //Still Works
A a3 = new A(); //Works
A a4 = new A(5); //Works
}
In this case, I'm fine with having some opCalls, because
technically, they aren't mixed with the constructors and used as
hacks: The constructors are all there, and the opCalls, merelly
forward to them.
That said, they *would* be destined for deprecation.
Use of "A a;" would create a problem though, but nothing's
perfect...
Is this second solution something you think I should look into?
