[Issue 1482] std.file docs are insufficient

d-bugmail at puremagic.com d-bugmail at puremagic.com
Tue Sep 11 07:04:36 PDT 2007


http://d.puremagic.com/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=1482





------- Comment #3 from jlquinn at us.ibm.com  2007-09-11 09:04 -------
(In reply to comment #1)
> It returns an array of the bytes that it read from the file. I think that the
> bug here is that the specs don't describe what a void[] really is. Closest to
> that is the "Implicit Conversions" sections here: 
> 
> http://digitalmars.com/d/arrays.html#strings
> (linked to closest anchor, scroll a bit below)
> 
> A void[] is functionally the same as a byte[] or ubyte[], with the differences:

It's essentially the same as char[] as well, then, right?  A char is really
just  a byte that is given preferential treatment as a UTF-8 string, no?

> The std.file functions aren't part of a class. Upside is simple and readable
> code for small programs, downside is possible name collisions ("read"/"write"
> is a common thing to be found in the global namespace). Yay for
> selective/static/renaming imports, 

The docs don't make this 100% clear.  I think it's mostly visual formatting,
combined with a lack of a cohesive summary for the module.

A related doc note ...  I find that the docs make it difficult to distinguish
the methods associated with a class when there multiple classes on a single
page.  Again, I'd call it visual formatting.

Another issue I found is that I didn't get a definitive answer on whether
reading files automatically treats them as UTF-8 or not.


> P.S. It's none of my business, but is IBM interested in D now? :)

I can't speak for the company, but I personally find the core language more
pleasant than C++.  If it offers better performance than java then it becomes
more interesting to me :-)



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