std.locale

[Walter Bright]

Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
> Walter Bright wrote:
>> Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
>>> There will be a global reference to a Locale class, e.g. 
>>> defaultLocale. By default the reference will be null, implying the C 
>>> locale should be in effect. Applications can assign to it as they 
>>> find fit, and also pass around multiple locale variables.
>>
>> I disagree with being able to assign to the global defaultLocale. This 
>> is going to cause endless problems. Just one is that any function that 
>> uses locale can no longer be pure. defaultLocale should be immutable.
>>
>> Any function that is locale aware should be parameterized with a 
>> locale parameter. (Not only is that better design, it self-documents 
>> the dependency.)
> 
> I don't understand this. That means there's no more default locale. 
> Here's what I had in mind:
> 
> class Locale { ... }
> 
> // function parameterized with an optional locale
> void foo(Data d, Locale loc = null);
> 
> So there's no more default locale. If you pass in null, that's the 
> default locale.

That's fine, I was thrown off by your reference to a "global reference".