foo!(bar) ==> foo{bar} ==> foo[bar] (just Brackets)

[Robert Fraser]

Don wrote:
> Bruno Medeiros wrote:
>> Jason House wrote:
>>> Bruno Medeiros wrote:
>>>
>>>> Don wrote:
>>>>> Denis Koroskin wrote:
>>>>>> On Wed, 08 Oct 2008 18:22:21 +0400, superdan <super at dan.org> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Walter Bright Wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Dee Girl wrote:
>>>>>>>>> I did not follow this group recent. School started. Sorry! I just
>>>>>>>>> see now and please add my vote if possible. I start with D recent
>>>>>>>>> and I remember beginning. foo!(bar) was not pleasant. Like forced
>>>>>>>>> convention with a bad char. And friends I show code never like it.
>>>>>>>>> It is first thing they say why they do not like D. For me foo{bar}
>>>>>>>>> better idea. Thank you, Dee Girl
>>>>>>>> What do your friends think of { } ?
>>>>>>> School started. Every one so busy now. But I think does not matter
>>>>>>> any more ^_^
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I want to make little idea. Sorry if idea mentioned before (I did 
>>>>>>> not
>>>>>>> read every thread). I think we can look square brackets []. Let me
>>>>>>> explain why.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Paren () is over used in C and in D. Any expression can be in (). 
>>>>>>> And
>>>>>>> adding () is possible in many cases. But it is not same with []. For
>>>>>>> example a:(b) is ambiguous but a:[b] is not. So there are many signs
>>>>>>> possible after symbol and before [. They are:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> ~ ! @ # $ % ^ & * - + = | \ / , < . > ? :
>>>>> Not all of them work. Here's a few examples:
>>>>>
>>>>>     enum { d= 3, e = 7 }
>>>>>     int [] a=[1,2];
>>>>>     bool c;
>>>>>     auto k=[e]; // kills =
>>>>>     a ~= c?[d]:[e]; // kills ?
>>>>>     int [] f = c?k:[e]; // kills :
>>>>>     if (f>[e]) {}   // kills <
>>>>>     if (f<[e]) {}   // kills >
>>>>>     auto g = (k,[d]); // kills comma
>>>>>     auto h = k~[d]; // kills ~
>>>>>
>>>>> Array ops will kill + - * / & | % ^
>>>>> Suddenly the list looks pretty short.
>>>>> !@#$\.
>>>>
>>>> Hum, what about brackets without any prefix character at all?
>>>>
>>>>    Vector[int, 2] foo;
>>>>    List[Vector[int, 2]] bar;
>>>>    int[3] a = [1, 2, 3]; // array literal here
>>>>    int[int] map;
>>>>    alias DenseMatrix[num] PulType;
>>>>    alias SparseRowsMatrix[num, HashSparseVector] PuuType;
>>>>    alias BiMap[uint, Tuple[uint, uint], BiMapOptions.lhDense] DicType;
>>>>    int var = a[2]; // array indexing here
>>>>
>>>> Hum... doesn't look bad visually. In fact it seems to fit quite nice
>>>> with how associative arrays, and even normal arrays, are declared. Hum,
>>>> yes, I'm personally liking this a lot.
>>>>
>>>> But does it have any ambiguities? Hum, can't think of any off-hand. If
>>>> an identifier appears before a bracket list, it could either be a
>>>> template instantiation, or an array indexation. But the syntax of both
>>>> is the same, so it doesn't need to be distinguished in the parser.
>>>>
>>>> Waddya think, was this discussed before?
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> It may be easy to parse, but it isn't easy to read.
>>>
>>> What is goban[19]?  Is it an array or a template?  I'd hate to be 
>>> reading
>>> through somebody else's code and have to decipher what things mean.
>>
>> I give the same answer I gave to Bill:
>>
>> True, you'd have to follow /goban/ to find out. But that is just a 
>> hover of the mouse away. :)
>>
>>
>> Just for the record, I'm also not bothered by !(), but if some people 
>> really find the urge to change it, I'd much rather have brackets than 
>> the ugly sad pirate. I say ugly because the dot is much more common 
>> than the '!', and for me it has a more solidified meaning of accessing 
>> members, so seeing it used as part of the template instantiation 
>> syntax looks weird.
>>
> That's my opinion, too.
> 
> Using square brackets would certainly fit with Walter's goal of making 
> templates less threatening for newcomers.
> It would be pretty cool to teach a newbie:
> 
> int[] a;
> int[double] b;  // this is an AA
> priorityqueue[double] c; // this is a template

I can't tell if you're being sarcastic here or not...