std.xml should just go

[Steven Schveighoffer]

On Fri, 11 Feb 2011 08:19:51 -0500, Bruno Medeiros  
<brunodomedeiros+spam at com.gmail> wrote:

> On 04/02/2011 21:07, Steven Schveighoffer wrote:
>> On Fri, 04 Feb 2011 15:44:46 -0500, Jeff Nowakowski <jeff at dilacero.org>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> On 02/03/2011 10:07 PM, Walter Bright wrote:
>>>>
>>>> The way to get a high performance string parser in D is to take
>>>> advantage of one of D's unique features - slices. Java, C++, C#, etc.,
>>>> all rely on copying strings. With D you can just use slices into the
>>>> original XML source text. If you're copying the text, you're doing it
>>>> wrong.
>>>
>>> Java's substring() does not copy the text, at least in the official
>>> JDK implementation. Unfortunately, it doesn't specify this behavior as
>>> part of the String API.
>>
>> Yes, but Java's strings are immutable. Typically a buffered I/O stream
>> has a mutable buffer used to read data. This necessitates a copy. At the
>> very least, you need to continue allocating more memory to hold all the
>> strings.
>>
>> -Steve
>
> True, but in this case you will have the exact same problem with any  
> other language as well. So it doesn't seem like D will have any  
> particular advantage over Java, with regards to slicing and strings.
>

I think D can do it without copying out of the buffer.  You just have to  
avoid using immutable strings.

-Steve