Feature request: array stuff

[Koroskin Denis]

On Sun, 04 May 2008 19:22:29 +0400, Lionello Lunesu  
<lio at lunesu.remove.com> wrote:

> Janice Caron wrote:
>> I would like to be able to allocate a dynamic array on the stack.
>> The following compiles, but does not achieve the desired effect:
>>      int n = 100;
>>     scope array = new int[n];
>
> Maybe this could be made to work as well:
>
> #int n = 100;
> #int[n] array;
>
> L.

That's not a dynamic allocation, i.e. you cannot do like this:

void foo(int i)
{
    int[i] array;
}

And I don't know of any language, that could do that. Problem is, you have  
to deal with stack alignment.
C/C++/D use "static stack alignment", i.e. it is mostly manager at compile  
time.
The only way of manipulating it at run time is a recursion. Asm statements  
don't help, because
for each "asm { push something; }" statement there is corresponding hidden  
"asm { pop; }" added.

> Janice Caron wrote:
> I would also like to be able to create uninitialised dynamic arrays:

>    // on the heap
>    auto array = new int[n] = void;
>
>    // on the stack
>    scope array = new int[n] = void;

I would rather stick with capacity member, i.e:

char[] array;
array.length = 100;   // zeroes out 100 elements
array.capacity = 200; // 0..100 are zeroes, 101..200 hold garbage

capacity can be implemented as a member function, rather than a field,
so that (array.sizeof == 8) still true.