Top 5

[Benji Smith]

Chris R. Miller wrote:
> Benji Smith wrote:
>> 4. String processing sucks. Writing code that works transparently with 
>> all three character types and correctly handles all unicode characters 
>> is basically impossible. Or at least it feels impossible. Trying to 
>> support both Phobos and Tango in the same string-processing routine is 
>> a definite no-go. In an ideal world, string-processing code shouldn't 
>> have to be littered with "static if" all over the place.
> 
> How would this be "fixed?"  Hint: don't suggest making strings an 
> object.  We tried that a while back, and it was more or less shot down.

Well, personally, I'd prefer it if strings were objects.

But I could accept strings as character arrays if they were actually 
characters arrays.

The current state of affairs, where strings are transparently just 
arrays of UTF-8 bytes makes them impossible to work with. They're 
unindexable, unsliceable. You can't operate directly on those arrays. 
You're forced to use the phobos/tango functions (which, by the way, are 
incompatible with one another).

If D strings must be character arrays, I'd love for them to at least be 
ordinary arrays. Each element of a char[] array should be a single 
character. And if a sizeof(char) == 1, then a char should be limited to 
a single byte. To represent mutlibyte characters, it should be necessary 
to use a wchar[] or dchar[] array.

--benji