DMD 0.177 release [Length in slice expressions]

[Don Clugston]

Andrei Alexandrescu (See Website For Email) wrote:
> Similarly, let's say that a group of revolutionaries convinces Walter 
> (as I understand happened in case of using "length" and "$" inside slice 
> expressions, which is a shame and an absolute disaster that must be 
> undone at all costs) to implement "auto"

This off-hand remark worries me. I presume that you mean being able to 
reference the length of a string, from inside the slice? (rather than 
simply the notation).
And the problem being that it requires a sliceable entity to know its 
length? Or is the problem more serious than that?
It's worrying because any change would break an enormous amount of code.

These issues you're raising seem to be far too fundamental to be fixed 
in the next few days, casting grave doubts on whether a D1.0 release on 
Jan 1 is a good idea.