Reference counted containers prototype

[Peter Alexander]

On 27/12/11 1:14 AM, Robert Jacques wrote:
> On Mon, 26 Dec 2011 17:09:02 -0800, Peter Alexander
>> If the held object has a method with the same name as RefCounted (e.g.
>> asConst) then how do you call the held object's method instead of
>> RefCounted's method?
>
> You, can't. Looking at the source code asConst is a private member
> function and therefore, given we are using opDispatch for forwarding,
> these methods should have _ or __ prepended onto them.

Identifiers starting with __ are reserved, which leaves you with _, 
which could be used by the held object also.


>> I've always felt very suspicious of opDispatch. It seems like exactly
>> the kind of thing that seems good when you look at simple cases, but
>> would cause subtle problems when used in conjunction with other D
>> features (e.g. UFCS).
>>
>> I'm not yet convinced that opDispatch has been thoroughly explored
>> enough to be used in such a fundamental part of the standard library.
>
> There are several uses for opDispatch. For example, vector swizzling is
> an example of using opDispatch to replace a finite set of related
> functions. General forwarding, like alias this, requires a minimalistic
> design: the public interface should be as small as reasonable and the
> private functions should never use a 'good' function name.

Stuff like swizzling is fine because you are just using it to generate 
other functions. Forwarding is what worries me because it has to cover 
absolutely *everything* and avoid namespace clashes in order to be useful.