alias and template instantiations (Re: Any word on the return-type const syntax? [OT])

[Bill Baxter]

Janice Caron wrote:
> On 12/9/07, Bill Baxter <dnewsgroup at billbaxter.com> wrote:
>> The instatiate-if-aliased behavior of D is a little annoying because it
>> means you can't create convenience aliases of your templates without
>> bloating up your executable.  For linear algebra types, for instance,
>> many C++ libraries will provide typedefs for the most common
>> combinations of floating point type and number of components, maybe a
>> dozen or so of these.
> 
> This begs the question, will

<voice=Inigo Montoya> You keep using that phrase. I do not think it 
means what you think it means.</voice>

>     enum SomeTemplate!(int) x;
> 
> instantiate the template if x is not used?

There's definitely something needing explaining here.  On the one hand 
new enum is supposed to be just like old enum expanded (no storage just 
a #define basically), and on the other its supposed to be like D2's 
current const storage class.

--bb