"this" reference not working?

[Jarrett Billingsley]

"OP" <OP at nothing.com> wrote in message news:evb2c0$2bel$1 at digitalmars.com...
>
> Nope, because you still make use of "this" pointer. I need an option that 
> wouldn't need the pointer or in which the pointer correctly points to the 
> caller of the contructor.

"this" is working just fine.  Believe me, I think people would have had 
problems by now if it wasn't.

The thing is that you can't have "virtual members."  You can't override a 
data member and have it be referenced through a class instance pointer 
virtually.  I.e. this (which is basically what you're doing) won't work:

class A
{
    static int x = 5;

    void printX()
    {
        // this x references A.x, regardless of what type 'this' is
        writefln(x);
    }
}

class B : A
{
    static int x = 10;

    override void printX()
    {
        super.printX();
    }
}

void main()
{
    A a = new A();
    // Prints 5
    a.printX();
    B b = new B();
    // Also prints 5
    b.printX();
}

"this.x" in any method (including the constructor) of A will always refer to 
A.x, because you're allowed to access static members through class 
instances.

This has to be done using a virtual method, i.e.

class A
{
    static int x = 5;

    void printX()
    {
        // now this uses a virtual call
        writefln(getX());
    }

    int getX()
    {
        return x;
    }
}

class B : A
{
    static int x = 10;

    override void printX()
    {
        super.printX();
    }

    override int getX()
    {
        // this is one of B's methods, so it returns B.x
        return x;
    }
}

void main()
{
    A a = new A();
    // Prints 5
    a.printX();
    B b = new B();
    // Now prints 10
    b.printX();
}