The great slice debate -- should slices be separated from arrays?

[Andrei Alexandrescu]

Steven Schveighoffer wrote:
> On Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:55:55 -0500, Andrei Alexandrescu 
> <SeeWebsiteForEmail at erdani.org> wrote:
> 
>> Because we don't know how to make things perfect in all circumstances.
> 
> Well, this makes things less than perfect in most circumstances for the 
> sake of a small questionable use case.  IMO, this is a huge step backwards.

I don't understand (I think I've lost track of what's going on). What is 
the problem, what is a step backwards, and what is a better solution?

Andrei