: in template specialization vs constraint

[Adam D. Ruppe via Digitalmars-d-learn]

On Tuesday, 22 December 2015 at 15:29:16 UTC, Shriramana Sharma 
wrote:
> 1) At func(100) why isn't the compiler complaining that it is 
> able to match two templates i.e. the ones printing 2 and 3?

Because the specialized one just wins the context. It only 
complains when there's two equal ones.

Constraints serve only to add or remove the template from the 
consideration list. If the constraint fails, the compiler 
considers that template to not even exist. If it passes, it adds 
the template to the overload list and then proceeds like it 
normally would without looking at the constraint again.

Since your constraint passed, #3 is added to the list along side 
#1 and #2. Then, since #2 is specialized, it gets picked instead 
of the others.

> 2) How come func(s) doesn't invoke the template that prints 3? 
> `T: int` in the context of specialization means an exact match 
> but in the context of constraints it means implicitly 
> convertible, no? The specialization section under 
> http://dlang.org/spec/template.html is not very clear about 
> this IMHO.

In specialization, it will implicitly convert, it will just 
select the best match available.

Make #1:

     void func(T : ubyte)(T v) { writeln(1); }

It will then use that for for the second line because it is a 
*better* match than :int, but :int still is a match so it works 
as a fallback.