Properties

[dsimcha]

I'm starting to think that this properties thing is becoming a hopelessly
complicated solution to a very simple problem.  The issue that brought this to a
head in the first place was foo = foo + 1 vs. foo += 1.  Given that solving this
case properly seems like a rather difficult problem, the solution of just defining
foo += 1 to mean foo = foo + 1 (which is what was originally proposed before
issues about properties of user-defined types were brought up) is starting to look
appealing.  Yes, this might be inefficient on user defined types w/ operator
overloading, but so is the equivalent in other languages:

SomeObject temp = myClass.getFoo();
myClass.setFoo(temp + 1);

I figure the vast majority of cases are going to be primitive types anyhow (mostly
ints), and if someone defines operator overloads such that foo += 1 produces
totally different observable behavior than foo = foo + 1, that's just too
ridiculously bad a design to even take seriously.  What do you think?  Is it worth
ignoring a few hard cases in exchange for solving most cases simply and elegantly
and without adding any new constructs?