proper bit fields in the D2 language?

[Daniel Keep]

nobody wrote:
> == Quote from Brad Roberts (braddr at puremagic.com)'s article
>> The auto-generated code from the library is the same code the compiler
>> would end up generating.  You can test that theory by comparing the
>> produced assembly for a C vs a D implementation.
> 
> If the generated code are same, and it's in the std library, which means no
> difference in the backend.
> 
> Then I'd rather write:
> 
> struct A
> {
>         bool flag1:  1;
>         bool flag2:  1;
>         // uint "",  6;   // this should be auto-magically generated by the compiler
> }
> 
> (the code is more clear, and the compiler can give better message).
> 
> than this:
> 
> struct A
> {
>     mixin(bitfields!(
>         bool, "flag1",    1,
>         bool, "flag2",    1,
>         uint, "",         6));
> }

Except that bitfields don't appear to be a widely used feature.  If you
can put it in the library with no performance penalty AND simplify the
compiler at the same time, that looks like a good thing to me, and I
believe Walter agrees.

  -- Daniel