Function calls

[Andrei Alexandrescu]

Bill Baxter wrote:
> On Thu, Jan 28, 2010 at 1:26 PM, Andrei Alexandrescu
> <SeeWebsiteForEmail at erdani.org> wrote:
>> Steven Schveighoffer wrote:
>>> On Thu, 28 Jan 2010 15:59:30 -0500, Andrei Alexandrescu
>>> <SeeWebsiteForEmail at erdani.org> wrote:
>>>> foreach (line; stdin.byLine()) { ... }
>>>>
>>>> vs.
>>>>
>>>> foreach (line; stdin.byLine) { ... }
>>>>
>>>> How do I choose?
>>> byLine is a property.  It is fetching a range on stdin.
>>>
>>> -Steve
>> Damn. I was sure the answer will be different.
> 
> Maybe "property" is a misleading word.  Clearly there are more things
> to which that applies than just what the traditional definition of the
> word would imply.  I would not in English call my nose a "property" of
> me, but if I were a D object and had a .nose accessor, I would
> certainly think that accessor would qualify as a D property.
> 
> How's this: anything that you can "get" without specifying additional
> information (and which doesn't change the outwardly visible state the
> object when you do so) is a property.   The C# syntax with the special
> use of "get" and "set" perhaps does a better job of conveying this.

This raises the hair on my back. It's back to programming-by-convention.

Andrei