static / global operator overload

[monarch_dodra]

On Sunday, 18 August 2013 at 21:23:05 UTC, Namespace wrote:
> On Sunday, 18 August 2013 at 15:29:26 UTC, Ali Çehreli wrote:
>> On 08/18/2013 07:34 AM, Namespace wrote:
>>
>> > In C++ you can declare operator overloads inside and outside
>> of classes
>> > (the latter is more popular)
>>
>> The latter is popular because a global operator takes 
>> advantage of implicit type conversions. A global operator+ 
>> allows using an int even on the left-hand side of the operator.
>>
>> As a result, assuming that MyInt can be constructed from an 
>> int, when there is
>>
>>    // Assume this is defined outside of MyInt definition
>>    MyInt operator+(MyInt lhs, MyInt rhs);
>>
>> the expression
>>
>>    1 + MyInt(2)
>>
>> is lowered to
>>
>>    operator+(MyInt(1), MyInt(2))
>>
>> > so why wasn't this introduced in D also?
>>
>> My guess is that there is no implicit construction of objects 
>> in D anyway so there wouldn't be that benefit.
>>
>> Ali
>
> It's also preferred (at least by me) because such methods don't 
> have to be in a class/struct and blows it up. They don't effect 
> the class/struct and thanks to UFCS we still could call them 
> like member methods.
> So IMO because they have no effect in a class/struct they 
> shouldn't be there.
>
> Compare:
>
> bool opEquals(ref const A a) { ... } inside of struct A
>
> versus:
>
> bool opEquals(ref const A lhs, ref const A rhs) { ... }
>
> I would prefer the last one.
>
> But I would like to see an official thread for this, if any 
> exist. Do you know one? I'm just startled that D follows this 
> way. :)

The possibility of static operator was raised, specifically for 
opDollar, in std.range, for the possibility of it automatically 
resolving to length.

Reception for *just* this was kind of cold. I remember it being 
downright hostile for UFCS operators in general.

The full conversation is here:
http://d.puremagic.com/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=7177
Note that while UFCS was discussed, it wasn't the root of the 
discussion :/