Aliases

[Walter Bright]

Reiner Pope wrote:
> What's the purpose of the restriction of alias in the specs -- 'Aliases 
> cannot be used for expressions'; it prevents some useful things like this:
> 
>   int[2] nodes;
>   alias nodes[0] left;
>   alias nodes[1] right;

How about:

	auto left = &nodes[0];
	auto right = &nodes[1];

Or:

	auto left = (){ return nodes[0]; }
	auto right = (){ return nodes[1]; }

> It could also be used for function forwarding, as Frank Benoit requested 
> earlier ('Feat. RQ: delegation alias'):
> 
>   class Foo
>   {
>     void DoSomething() {...}
>   }
> 
>   class FooHandle
>   {
>     Foo myFoo;
>     alias myFoo.DoSomething DoSomething;
>   }

Or:
	auto DoSomething = &myFoo.DoSomething;


> Maybe someone can explain why this restriction is necessary.