Proposal: Dedicated-string-mixin templates/functions

[Simen kjaeraas]

Nick Sabalausky <a at a.a> wrote:

> Point #1: It's often been noted that string mixin syntax is ugly. Which  
> is a
> bad thing in and of itself, but it also tends to discourage use of string
> mixins despite their high degree of usefulness.
>
> Point #2: It seems to me that the vast majority of templates and  
> functions
> are either designed specifically to be used as a string mixin or
> specifically designed to be used as something other than a string mixin.
> Only rarely does a single template or function seem to be particularly
> useful both ways.
>
> Proposal:
> So how about taking a cue from Nemerle:
>
> Current:
> -----------------------
> template foo1 {
>     const char[] foo1 = "int a;";
> }
> char[] foo2() {
>     return "int b;";
> }
> mixin(foo1!());
> mixin(foo2());
> -----------------------
>
> Proposed:
> -----------------------
> mixin template foo1 {
>     const char[] foo1 = "int a;";
> }
> mixin char[] foo2() {
>     return "int b;";
> }
> foo1!();
> foo2();
> -----------------------
>
> One consequence of this worth noting is that the current string-mixin  
> could
> be trivially recreated under the proposed syntax:
>
> -----------------------
> mixin char[] mixinString(char[] str) {
>     return str;
> }
> mixinString("int a;");
> -----------------------
>
> Maybe someone not as half-asleep as I currently am can point out a
> clean/clever way to retrieve the string value of such a template/function
> without actually mixing it in, to cover the occasional cases where that
> actually would be useful.
>
>

Actually, this is already in Bugzilla.
( http://d.puremagic.com/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=3666 )
And it will probably come as no surprise that I, as creator of that
request, very much support this.

-- 
Simen