64Bit compatibility warnings

[Stewart Gordon]

On 21/01/2012 11:43, Peter Alexander wrote:
<snip>
> size_t is defined in druntime as an alias to uint/ulong.

In C++ too, size_t is defined in the standard library.

> The compiler is unaware of any special status that it may have.

The whole point of what I'm saying is that it doesn't need to be.

writefln is a library function.  But DMD recognises it specially, so that it can give 
"perhaps you need to import std.stdio;" if you try using it.

In the same way, it could recognise size_t/ptrdiff_t specially, by treating them 
internally as strong types even if they aren't - so that if you try to use one as a 
uint/int, it will give a warning.  Just like the M$ C++ compiler does.

OK, so it's simpler if size_t and ptrdiff_t are changed to built-in types, but my point is 
that it's not strictly necessary.

 From what I gather, some C++ compilers do more than this: they have a built-in 
understanding of the STL types, which they can use to optimise operations on them better 
than can be done in the code implementations of them.

Stewart.