isArray and std.container.Array

[via Digitalmars-d-learn]

On Sunday, 28 September 2014 at 16:12:53 UTC, Meta wrote:
> On Sunday, 28 September 2014 at 08:01:00 UTC, Nordlöw wrote:
>> Is there a reason why isArray!T doesn't match T when T is a 
>> std.container.Array? I'm asking because after looking into 
>> msgpack-d because of
>>
>> http://forum.dlang.org/thread/aclapseyptgcwntdavwt@forum.dlang.org#post-aclapseyptgcwntdavwt:40forum.dlang.org
>>
>> I realized that this is the reason why msgpack doesn't 
>> correctly pack std.container.Array.
>
> It's just an oversight in isArray as far as I can tell. I don't 
> know if there's any specific reason that Array is not 
> considered an array.

I don't think so. std.container.Array is just a data structure 
that behaves like an array, but there could be countless other 
user defined data structures. It should not get preferred 
treatment over those other types. At most, isArray could check 
for the presence of .length, .ptr and indexing/slicing. But I 
think isArray was intended specifically for built-in arrays. It's 
description "is an array (static or dynamic [...])" is probably 
meant to express that, because it lists static and dynamic 
arrays, but doesn't mention array-like containers.