Uniform function call syntax

[Robert Jacques]

On Wed, 26 May 2010 20:44:50 -0400, retard <re at tard.com.invalid> wrote:

> Thu, 27 May 2010 01:52:32 +0200, Simen kjaeraas wrote:
>
>> On Thu, 27 May 2010 01:41:16 +0200, retard <re at tard.com.invalid> wrote:
>>
>>> Wed, 26 May 2010 22:05:48 +0200, Jacob Carlborg wrote:
>>>
>>>> I've asked this before, probably several times: if and when will D get
>>>> the uniform function call syntax that has been talked about? Example:
>>>>
>>>> void foo (int i) {}
>>>> 3.foo();
>>>>
>>>> And please don't say it's already implemented because it isn't, I've
>>>> heard that before.
>>>
>>> Are you sure you're not confusing two things.
>>>
>>> "The uniform access says that client code should not be affected by a
>>> decision to implement an attribute as a field or method." -- Programming
>>> in Scala
>>>
>>> The other is a term known as extension methods. "Extension methods
>>> enable you to "add" methods to existing types without creating a new
>>> derived type, recompiling, or otherwise modifying the original type."
>>> -- http:// msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb383977.aspx
>>
>> http://s3.amazonaws.com/dconf2007/WalterAndrei.pdf
>>
>> Page 9. The idea is that foo(bar) may be replaced with bar.foo() and
>> vice versa, making function calls 'uniform' in that both member
>> functions and free functions may be called in the same manner.
>
> I understood what you meant. It's just that the idea was invented before
> in C#. I usually give attribution to (and favor the term invented by) the
> original innovator, not the copycat. Those two features have only few
> differences, for example C# requires importing the symbols first with
> 'using'. The proposed D feature is more careless here.

Actually, C# is, if anything, the copycat. (Convergent evolution is much  
more likely) Extension methods were introduced in C# 3, which was released  
November 2007. Uniform function call syntax was discussed at D language  
conference in August 2007. And it's a logical extension from array  
'Functions as Array Properties' which has been around since at least 2006.