Can't call opIndex on class property

[Aho H. Ullman]

In article <e0uqau$2g5q$1 at digitaldaemon.com>, John C says...
>Surely I have no arguments - pairs["Name"] = value should be equivalent to 
>pairs()["Name"] = value.

A property with no arguments is defined to be a getter, so you get the "not an
lvalue"-error and are not able to assign. And if you want a setter you have to
use one argument, i.e. you are loosing the syntactical appearance of an AA.


>I want the 'pairs' property to be read-only - that is, users can 
>assign values to names, but not override the internal variable.
..
>Wait - didn't I already show in my original post that it works if the 
>variable is used instead? 

I haven't clearly expressed what I mean with _resemble_.

I meant to introduce another unprotected variable that implements the protection
for the protected internal variable. That unprotected variable is assignable,
but the only possible assignment is eliminating every access to the internal
variable.

This may solve your primary design goals, but at the cost that every access to
the internal variable is sabotageable by a black hat.

---- file "propAA.d"
import std.stdio;
class NameValue {
char[][char[]] inner;
char[] opIndex(char[] name) {
return inner[name];
}
void opIndexAssign(char[] value, char[] name) {
inner[name] = value;
}
}

class Client {
private:
NameValue pairs_;
class Pairs{
void opIndexAssign(char[] value, char[] name) {
pairs_[name] = value;
}
char[] opIndex( char[] name){
return pairs_[ name];
}
}
public:
Pairs pairs;
this() {
pairs_ = new NameValue;
pairs = new Pairs;
}
}

Client client;


------file "user.d"
import propAA;

void main() {
Client client = new Client;
// client.pairs_["One"]="One"; // error: protected
// client.pairs= new Client.Pairs; // at least ineffective
// client.pairs= null; // this sabotages every access
client.pairs["One"] = "Two"; // no error here
writefln( client.pairs["One"]); // assigned
}