T[new] misgivings

[Fawzi Mohamed]

On 2009-10-16 11:49:12 +0200, Walter Bright <newshound1 at digitalmars.com> said:

> Don wrote:
>> There are two sensible options:
> 
> I see the question as, is T[new] a value type or a reference type? I 
> see it as a reference type, and so assignment should act like a 
> reference assignment, not a value assignment.

I also see T[new] as a reference type.
Unfortunately this precludes some optimizations like putting size and 
capacity directly at the start of the allocated array, avoiding a 
redirection to access data: The caller object would miss the changes if 
the block is reallocated.

T[new] a;
T[new] b;
b.length=LongLength;
a.length=?

But as putting them at the start of the array might have an adverse 
effect on optimizations that expect special alignment (vector 
operations) maybe not everything is bad.

Fawzi