Is std.array.replace supposed to work with char[]?

[Steven Schveighoffer]

On Sun, 20 Feb 2011 13:40:08 -0500, Jacob Carlborg <doob at me.com> wrote:


>
> I'm confused about how someone can implement a library like this. Every  
> time I try to use D2 it's just a PITA to use. I've used D1 and Tango for  
> several years and had no problem with that.

Strings are a sore spot for me, I think the current implementation is a  
hack which leaves much to be desired.  However, it seems that Andrei  
believes the current implementation is not only decent, but actually  
better than any alternative.

> I assume this has been discussed, did that resolve in any plans to solve  
> this?

I am, in my spare time, working on a way to represent strings that allows  
strings to be what they are and arrays of chars or wchars to be what they  
are.  It is not finished yet, but I've put forth a couple incomplete  
examples.  Search for [review] on the D news group.

Things have gotten quite more complex when I realized that dchar is  
actually not the most natural "element" of a string, since a dchar doesn't  
represent a visible character (or one that a human would interpret as a  
single character) and also that the exact same string can be sometimes  
represented by two distinct sequences of dchars.  When I can finish the  
proposed change, I will probably try integrating it with Phobos to see how  
well it works.

-Steve