Order of arguments for std.range.take

[so]

On Tue, 16 Aug 2011 08:00:58 +0300, Jonathan M Davis <jmdavisProg at gmx.com>  
wrote:

> Okay. Currently take's arguments are range then number. As I understand  
> it,
> they were previously number and then range, but some folks complained  
> about
> not being able to use arrays' member function call syntax that way, so  
> it was
> changed to what it is now. The downside to that is that code becomes much
> harder to read when you chain functions. e.g.
>
> auto r = find(take(map!(std.uni.toUpper)(range), 5)), "hello");
>
> is harder to read than
>
> auto r = find(take(5, map!(std.uni.toUpper)(range))), "hello");
>
> And of course, it only gets worse the more functions you chain. It  
> becomes
> very easy to lose which function the number actually goes with. So, what  
> I'm
> wondering is whether it would be worthwhile defining take _both_ ways.
>
> Take!R take(R)(R input, size_t n)
>
> and
>
> Take!R take(R)(size_t n, R input)

No please.

> Normally, I wouldn't want to do that, since it's arguably pointless  
> function
> duplication, but it would be totally unambiguous in this case, and it  
> would
> allow you to have the member function call syntax if prefer that or to  
> have
> the increased readibility if you want that. I _really_ prefer having the  
> size
> first, because it makes the code more readible, so personally, I'd  
> prefer to
> either change it back to the way that it was or do this, but I can  
> understand
> people wanting to use the member function call syntax for arrays.
>
> So, the question is whether this is at all a good idea. And if not, is  
> there
> any kind of real support for changing it back to take the number first?  
> If
> we're stuck with the way that it is, we're stuck with the way that it  
> is, but
> IMHO the current situation with take is suboptimal.
>
> - Jonathan M Davis

AFAIK only sensible solution (as proposed) is improving UFCS. It is a  
complete solution, not a workaround.

void fun(A1, A2, <keyword> A3, A4) {}

fun(A1, A2, A3, A4);
A3.fun(A1, A2, A4);

And for take:
R take(size_t A1, <keyword> A2) {}

take(A1, A2);
A2.take(5)