Is DMD 0.166 RC 1.0?

[Derek Parnell]

On Mon, 04 Sep 2006 15:15:15 -0700, Walter Bright wrote:

> Derek Parnell wrote:
>>> It's an error in C++ for the same reason (can't initialize a reference 
>>> with a non-const).
>> 
>> You are right Walter. However, a[5] looks looks like an lvalue doesn't it?
>> In fact, it could have been one until the class author changed it to a
>> property.  I feel that Properties need to behave as if they were data
>> members rather than methods when used as such. Thus ...
>> 
>>   f(a.prop);
>> and
>>   f(a.prop());
>> 
>> would look *and* behave differently but without surprising the coder.
>> 
>> And this also means that 
>> 
>>   a.prop++
>> 
>> needs to work too. It is a great surprise to new comers that obvious things
>> like this are not working as expected.
> 
> Whether it's consistent or not depends on how you think about it - what 
> your mental model is of it. I'd rather have the odd cases produce error 
> messages rather than have the compiler paper over what is likely a 
> programmer oversight.

What 'odd case'?

What 'programmer oversight'?

The coder writes 

  a.prop++;

because the 'prop' is a data item in the object that she wants to
increment. It is irrelevant to the coder whether or not the class author
decided to implement this data item as a property or data member. From the
perspective of the user of the class, 'prop' represents some data in the
object. The implementation details are not a concern for the user of the
class. 

-- 
Derek Parnell
Melbourne, Australia
"Down with mediocrity!"