Evaluation order

[bearophile]

(I discuss such topics here because I don't know where else I can)

I have seen a recent change:
http://dsource.org/projects/dmd/changeset/399

I guess it's something related to specifying an evaluation order in D in function calls like bar() of main():

import std.stdio: writeln;
import std.string: format;

class Obj {
    int x;
    this(int xx) { x = xx; }
    string member() { return format("member ", x); }
}

Obj foo() {
    return new Obj(2);
}

void bar(string s, Obj o2) {
    writeln("bar ", s, " ", o2.x);
}

void main() {
    Obj o = new Obj(1);
    bar(o.member(), o=foo());
}

C specifications do not define the order of evaluation for function arguments. It can be left-to-right, right-to-left or anything else and is unspecified. Thus any code which relies on this order of evaluation is not portable.

D can solve this problem as I think Java has done, just specifying it, and forcing the compiler to produce hypothetically a bit less efficient code in some situations.

Another strategy to solve this problem that's possible in D (and not possible in C) is to allow only pure expressions inside function calls. So in a function call you can put pure expressions like x+5 or calls to pure functions. And then the D compiler is free to leave unspecified the order of evaluation of function arguments.

Bye,
bearophile