Does D have too many features?

[Jonathan M Davis]

On Tuesday, May 01, 2012 16:31:25 Alex Rønne Petersen wrote:
> 1) So because some people might use a feature incorrectly due to lack of
> knowledge in algorithms and data structures, we should cripple the language?

If in is not restricted to a particular level Big-O complexity, then you 
cannot safely use it in generic code. That's why all of the functions in 
std.container give their Big-O complexity.

In C++ [] is supposed to be O(log n) at worst. I would expect it to be the 
same in D, and since in is doing essentially the same operation, I would 
expect it to have the same Big-O complexity.

No, nothing is stopping a programmer from giving it horrible complexity, but 
the standard library and language should _definitely_ stick to O(log n) worst 
case for in and []. It would be a disaster for generic algorithms if in worked 
on normal arrays, because it would not be possible to maintain the required 
Big-O complexity.

- Jonathan M Davis