immutable

[Steven Schveighoffer]

On Wed, 26 Jan 2011 16:13:41 -0500, Trass3r <un at known.com> wrote:

>>> (readln only uses ~= on buf, it doesn't change the original string)
>>
>> What?  Why does it take a ref argument then?  If it doesn't overwrite  
>> the buffer passed in, there is no point in giving it a buffer.
>
> No I meant it doesn't alter buf's original content, i.e. "hello"
> Of course it modifies the array itself via ~= and thus takes it as a ref.
> Though it should use 'out' instead I think.

Then why not return the newly-created buffer?  Why alter the buffer via a  
parameter?  It makes no sense to me.

Better API:

char[] readln();

or if you want different char types:

C[] readln(C = char)();

I think the original intent was for the code to overwrite the buffer, but  
it doesn't take into account the append improvements circa 2.041.

-Steve