How to do Generic Programming in D?

[Jason House]

Nick Wrote:

> Coming from Andrei's work in C++ "Modern C++ Programming" I wonder how 
> to implement many of those patterns in D?
> 
> In C++ I would work with type lists and use lots of multiple inheritance 
> and templates to get the magic I need.

I don't have the book, but I'm sure that if you posted an example task, someone here (or on d.learn) would translate it using their favorite D style.


> D lacks MI, classes and delegates seem heavy (allocated on heap, with 
> one extra pointer and new for each delegate) and has instead template 
> mixins which do not create types and string mixing which create... anything.

Nick addressed some of these already.

I thought delegates were passed like a struct on the stack. The extra pointer in a delegate seems handy to me. It's much cleaner than what C++ does. There's also C-like function pointers.

You also left out "static if", compile-time function execution, and is expressions. They replace a lot of the required magic from C++. A lot of people swear by string mixins, but I use them sparingly. There's also conditional templates which I've never used, but look useful. 

> 
> So I am a bit lost.
> 
> I guess I am looking for some code&examples to read to "get" GP in D. A 
> bit like "Modern C++ Programming".
> 
> Of course, the basic question being: is D2 sufficient to support 
> everything that is possible in C++?
> 
> Thanks!