Direct access to struct construction, copying and destruction

[Jonathan M Davis]

On Wednesday, July 11, 2012 09:28:15 Benjamin Thaut wrote:
> Am 10.07.2012 07:13, schrieb Jonathan M Davis:
> > On Tuesday, July 10, 2012 06:53:29 Benjamin Thaut wrote:
> >> Am 10.07.2012 00:53, schrieb Jonathan M Davis:
> >>> On Monday, July 09, 2012 22:41:57 Benjamin Thaut wrote:
> >>>> Clear uses the TypeInfo. The proposed functions should not be library
> >>>> functions but directly aviable from the compiler. Something like
> >>>> __postblit and __dtor but properly implemented.
> >>> 
> >>> Well, since all of the necessary information is in the TypeInfo, not in
> >>> the
> >>> type itself, I don't see how you're going to do that. As I understand
> >>> it,
> >>> it's not the compiler that deals with all of that. It's druntime. So,
> >>> without a major redesign, there's no way that the compiler is going to
> >>> generate that stuff for you. That's druntime's job.
> >>> 
> >>> - Jonathan M Davis
> >> 
> >> So who fills the TypeInfo objects, the runtime? I always assumed that
> >> the compiler fills the TypeInfo and therefor has all the neccessary
> >> information already at hand.
> > 
> > I don't know the details, but as I understand it, all of the logic for
> > actually copying and destroying things properly is in druntime. The
> > compiler doesn't do any of that. That being the case, any code which
> > wants to use a type's postblit or destructor needs to use druntime. Right
> > now, I believe that the compiler just uses hooks into the druntime code
> > like it does with stuff like new and AAs. So, to skip using the druntime
> > functions to properly copy or destroy an object, the compiler would have
> > to duplicate the logic which currently resides in druntime.
> > 
> > - Jonathan M Davis
> 
> Thats fine, I don't want the compiler to duplicate that logic. I just
> want the compiler to expose all the neccessary function that are
> provided by the compiler anyway so *I* can duplicate the logic from
> D-Runtime *without* going over a TypeInfo Object.

Then look over TypeInfo and see what it does. It may be possible to just 
duplicate what it's doing. I don't know. Certainly, TypeInfo is used by 
druntime to do the postblits and destructors, so even the compiler is using 
TypeInfo for doing that.

- Jonathan M Davis