The demise of T[new]

[Denis Koroskin]

On Mon, 19 Oct 2009 23:31:37 +0400, Andrei Alexandrescu  
<SeeWebsiteForEmail at erdani.org> wrote:

> Don wrote:
>> Walter Bright wrote:
>>> The purpose of T[new] was to solve the problems T[] had with passing  
>>> T[] to a function and then the function resizes the T[]. What happens  
>>> with the original?
>>>
>>> The solution we came up with was to create a third array type, T[new],  
>>> which was a reference type.
>>>
>>> Andrei had the idea that T[new] could be dispensed with by making a  
>>> "builder" library type to handle creating arrays by doing things like  
>>> appending, and then delivering a finished T[] type. This is similar to  
>>> what std.outbuffer and std.array.Appender do, they just need a bit of  
>>> refining.
>>>
>>> The .length property of T[] would then become an rvalue only, not an  
>>> lvalue, and ~= would no longer be allowed for T[].
>>>
>>> We both feel that this would simplify D, make it more flexible, and  
>>> remove some awkward corner cases like the inability to say a.length++.
>>>
>>> What do you think?
>>  Since noone else seems to have said it: The fact that you're both  
>> willing to let it go, after having already invested a lot of time in  
>> it, is a good sign for the language. Well done.
>
> I'm relieved that somebody mentioned that :o). As soon as we gave up  
> with T[new], people started to sell it to us. We should preemptively  
> post about eliminating feature plans before actually implementing them.
>
> By the way: implementation of @property has been canceled.
>
>
> Andrei

I *really* hope you told it so that we encourage actually implementing it!
I strongly believe attributes and properties are very important for D.