std.string and std.algorithm: what to do?

[Daniel Keep]

Steven Schveighoffer wrote:
> On Thu, 14 May 2009 09:55:08 -0400, Andrei Alexandrescu
> <SeeWebsiteForEmail at erdani.org> wrote:
> 
>> Also, I dislike the signature int find() that returns -1 if not found.
>> Time and again experience shows that find() returning a range is much
>> better in real code because it works seamlessly when the
>> substring/element was not found (no more need for an extra test!)
> 
> Ech, returning -1 is the bane of Java and C#.  The return value should
> be the end of the string, regardless of whether it is a range or index. 
> I could never understand the mentality of returning -1 versus end of
> string.
> 
> -Steve

int idx = find(str);
if( idx == -1 ) doStuff;

- or -

if( idx == str.length ) doStuff;

  -- Daniel