Semantics of toString

Justin Johansson no at spam.com
Thu Nov 5 15:56:18 PST 2009


Don Wrote:

> Justin Johansson wrote:
> > I assert that the semantics of "toString" or similarly named/purposed methods/functions in many
> > PL's (including and not limited to D) is ill-defined.
> > 
> > To put this statement into perspective, I would be most appreciative of D NG readers
> > responding with their own idea(s) of what the semantics of "toString" are (or should be)
> > in a language agnostic ideology.
> > 
> > If there are more than, say, two or three different views on the said semantics then my
> > "ill-definition" assertion is surely correct.
> > 
> > If there are no replies on this matter, then guess I'm left concludeless.
> > 
> > Just thinking in the language round-up that this is (just another) one of the things
> > we should address as a community.
> > 
> > So what does "toString" mean to you?
> 
> It's a hack from the early days of D. Should be unavailable unless the 
> -debug flag is set, to discourage people from using it. I hate it.

There are some interesting replies coming along here.  Thanks everybody for
chipping in.

I must admit though, when I read Don's reply just now the first thought that
went through my mind was "Sweet!"

Justin




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