UCFS, Reflection/Metadata, Overload Resolution, Templates, and other issues

[Robert Jacques]

On Thu, 07 Apr 2011 14:20:53 -0400, %u <wfunction at hotmail.com> wrote:

> I was trying to write a "Dynamic" class for D, which uses opDispatch
> to allow for late binding, but I ran into a problem:
>
> While my class works well for regular methods inside a class, it
> fails to work for:
> (1) Template methods inside a class
> (2) Methods with overloads
> (3) Global methods that have nothing to do with a class, like
> writeln
> Furthermore, it would also fail to work for (4) UCFS if/when it's
> implemented.
>
> It seems like templates by design *don't* allow for anything to
> happen dynamically, and at the same time, it seems like _everything_
> is becoming a template nowadays.
>
> So my question is, is there anything we can do about it (either now
> or later)? Or is a dynamic extension simply beyond the reach of D?

I've added reflection capabilities to an update to std.variant I'm working  
on. Overloads work. General functions work. (Although a few bugs with  
opCall and opDispatch prevents the ideal syntax: var.x(5) vs var.x = 5 and  
var.call(5) vs var(5), but I assume those will be eventually fixed). I've  
also added an internal type database, so you can auto-magically build a  
Variant(TypeInfo, void*) or Variant(Object) and then call methods on the  
real, underlying type.

Templates, I think, will out of the range of dynamic D capabilities for  
some time to come.

Also, because I'm wrapping / unwrapping all arguments, ref doesn't work.