clear() and UFCS

[Alex Rønne Petersen]

On 25-05-2012 16:56, Steven Schveighoffer wrote:
> On Fri, 25 May 2012 10:52:15 -0400, Alex Rønne Petersen
> <alex at lycus..org> wrote:
>
>> On 25-05-2012 16:50, deadalnix wrote:
>>> Le 25/05/2012 15:21, Alex Rønne Petersen a écrit :
>>>> On 25-05-2012 15:17, deadalnix wrote:
>>>>> Le 25/05/2012 15:04, Alex Rønne Petersen a écrit :
>>>>>> So I was writing a container class and in some test code, I called
>>>>>> container.clear(). Reasonable enough, right? Hell, it even compiled!
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Turns out, my program completely broke at runtime. Apparently, I'd
>>>>>> forgotten to implement clear() on my container class, and
>>>>>> *object.clear() was being called instead*.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I don't blame UFCS for this. It just happened to be the reason this
>>>>>> compiled at all. But, what I do think is: clear is the *ABSOLUTELY
>>>>>> MOST
>>>>>> HORRIBLE NAME EVER* for a function that actually finalizes and
>>>>>> zeroes an
>>>>>> object. Did it not seem obvious to call it, I don't know, *finalize*?
>>>>>> And even ignoring the naming, having a symbol called clear in the
>>>>>> 'global' namespace is absolute insanity.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Am I the only person with this opinion?
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Why is UFCS involved here ?
>>>>
>>>> Since the clear method didn't exist on the type, the call was mapped to
>>>> the clear function in the global scope. This is UFCS.
>>>>
>>>
>>> OK, I get it ! Weird side effect :D
>>>
>>> BTW, where is the documentation about clear and emplace ? I can't find
>>> it on dlang.org .
>>
>> I think clear() is basically entirely undocumented still.
>
> Wow, you're right, it's not documented. That should be fixed!
>
> -Steve

Before we do, we should deprecate clear and rename it to finalize, though.

-- 
Alex Rønne Petersen
alex at lycus.org
http://lycus.org