Suggestion: Implicit Derived[]-to-Base[] conversions should be disallowed

[James Dennett]

Frits van Bommel wrote:
> James Dennett wrote:
>> I've a feeling that this *is* implemented in the linker
>> in the one system that does it today -- but don't quote
>> me on that, as I've not checked in detail.
> 
> Doesn't implementing it in the linker make it language-neutral?

Largely, yes.

> Then it's not really related to D except in a very
> indirect manner, meaning this is probably not the
> best place to discuss this.

Except that an unfortunate proportion of thought about
the evolution of D is driven by misunderstandings about
the corresponding decisions relating to C++ and their
impact.  The "templates cause code bloat" mantra is
popular, and is too simplistic to be a good approximation
to the truth.  "Templates can vastly reduce the amount
of source code that has to be written and maintained,
and can make the code that is present very readable,
but can come at a cost in terms of implementation
complexity, and can contribute to bloated binaries
unless used sensibly and with quality implementations"
is a little too long to make a good sound bite though.

> (Unless you plan to implement a new linker in D :p)

Not today ;)

-- James