Does D have too many features?

[Manu]

On 29 April 2012 01:09, F i L <witte2008 at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Saturday, 28 April 2012 at 18:48:18 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:
>
>> Andrei and I had a fun discussion last night about this question. The
>> idea was which features in D are redundant and/or do not add significant
>> value?
>>
>> A couple already agreed upon ones are typedef and the cfloat, cdouble and
>> creal types.
>>
>> What's your list?
>>
>
> First, I completely agree with some points already made here, and I
> completely disagree with a few others.
>
> A modern compiler should be as powerful and convenient as possible, I
> completely disagree that a compiler can't do a broad range of things very
> efficiently _and_ with a smooth learning. Indeed this is what attracted me
> to D in the first place, the idea that it has the low level power of C++
> when you get down to it, but it's also attractive and initially easy to use.
>
>
>
> What I think should be removed/changed:
>
> - Drop is( ... ) and extend "__traits()" (however "__traits" should become
> .metaof or something along those lines). Also, a easy to understand traits
> lib should be imported by default like Object.d
>
> - Enum as manifest constant - I agree, this is better as "static x = 10"
> or equivalent. I was actually confused at first when I realized enum's
> where what was *supposed* to be used for that.
>
> - foreach_reverse. Dmitry's gave a good alternative. Though, I think a
> more intelligent 'foreach' (or even 'for') statement could address this as
> well. Something like:
>
>    for (key, value of range, step) {
>        ...
>    }
>
>    // Where step values which can be deduced at compile time
>    // are used to produce the most optimizated code.
>
> - version statements - this would be a lot more consistent as a static
> if() I think. But it does need a more obvious syntax, possibly something
> like:
>
>    static if ("foo" in Compiler.flags) {
>        ...
>    }
>
> - .di files - I agree with foobar here. Other language have had this for
> awhile, and it makes linking a much easier concept.
>
> - NaN as default - I've said this before on here, but I think it deserves
> being said again. FP values defaulting to Nan is a debugging feature, and
> should be explicitly expressed in areas which need to guarantee a variable
> is set after declaration. A useful, and consistent default should be used
> instead. Ints (the other number type) default to zero, and because zero is
> the most practical and commonly understood, FP values should start here as
> well.
>
> - commas - should be use for tuples and parameters, not as ending marks:
>
>    int, int foo() { return 5, 6; }
>
>    auto x, y = 2;    // x = 0, y = 2
>    auto x, y = 2, 3; // x = 2, y = 3
>
>    x, y = foo();     // x = 5, y = 6
>
>
>
> What should stay:
>
> - foreach (or an intelligent 'for' as exampled above). This is an
> incredibly convenient, tried 'n true feature.
>
> - built-in Associative Arrays - one of D's sexiest features. It's very
> useful for many things, and always having it at your disposal is a logical
> choice.
>
> - properties - another incredibly convenient feature. I think a more sexy
> implementation of properties are in order, but the construct is great. It
> would be nice to have properties as a language type, rather than a
> attribute:
>
>    struct Foo {
>        property int x { get; private set; }
>        property int y {
>            get()    { return x; }
>            set(T t) { x = t; }
>        }
>    }
>
>    // Or the syntax could follow Types:
>
>    property x : int { ... }
>
>    // Which could be templated:
>
>    property y(T = int) : int {
>        static if (T.isType!int) {
>           ...
>        }
>        else {
>           ...
>        }
>    }
>
> - with statement - no reason to kill it really and it's useful in some
> places. Helps keep code short and readable.
>
> - Anonymous class - There's no reason to remove this feature, it's not
> hurting anyone and it could allow for interesting frameworks similar to
> jQuery.
>
>
>
> Other things that would be cool:
>
> - static foreach
>

Hear hear.
I completely agree with everything you just said.
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