Strings in DWT

[Anders F Björklund]

torhu wrote:

>> In Phobos there is an alias char[] to "string". Would that make
>> sense to be used in DWT?
>>
>> With the helper functions in dwt.dwthelper.utils, the char[] can be 
>> used like the Java String in many cases. An alias to String would 
>> remove many replacements. And this would make merging/diffing easier.
>>
>> 1.) "char[]"
>> 2.) alias char[] string;
>> 3.) alias char[] String;
>>
>> What do you think? What should be used in DWT?
> 
> If it helps with porting and updating DWT, 'String' could be added for 
> internal use.  Or maybe 'jstring', to give a unique name?
> 
> 'string' is more problematic, since it would conflict if tango adds it 
> too, leading to some user confusion until it can be fixed.  This can of 
> course be avoided by using the trick[1] that Thomas Kuehne posted last 
> summer.

And "string" is predefined as invariant in D2, which further complicates
the matter and makes it a good idea to avoid redeclaring "string" type.
("String" would be a class normally, with the upper case letter in it ?)

wxD had a "string" type long before D did, so it's currently using some
versioning in order to only declare the type when the stdlib doesn't...
(the fully qualified name of the old alias type being wx.common.string)

version (Tango)
{
const int version_major = 1;
const int version_minor = 0;
}
else // Phobos
{
public import std.compiler; // version
}

static if (version_major < 1 ||
(version_major == 1 && version_minor < 16))
         alias char[] string; // added in DMD 1.016 and DMD 2.000


I'd go with either of the now built-into-Phobos types "string" (char[])
and "wstring" (wchar[]), or use some adapation of the java String class.
Depending on whether you want it to be an array or a class, not sure ?

--anders