Updates to the WindowsAPI translation instructions; D2 only?

[Stewart Gordon]

On 02/08/2013 02:55, Mike Parker wrote:
<snip>
>> - Define a mixin template along the lines of __AW in newer versions of MinGW, so that
>>
>>     version (Unicode) {
>>         alias QwertW Qwert;
>>     } else {
>>         alias QwertA Qwert;
>>     }
>>
>> can become simply
>>
>>     mixin DECLARE_AW!("Qwert");
>>
>
> I would be cautious about doing this. I know that multiple string mixins can have a
> noticeable impact on compile time. I don't know if that holds to the same scale for
> template mixins, but given the size of the Win32 bindings I would want to be sure before
> implementing it.

Well, I need to use a string mixin to implement it anyway, unless you've found another way.

> I would want to make compile time a top priority. If everyone were always
> compiling the bindings as a library, it wouldn't be such a concern. But when using build
> tools which compile imports along with the app source, it can become an issue.

The compiler has to process the content of the bindings source files when using the 
bindings, not just when compiling them.  Indeed, part of what I'm trying to do is have no 
library to build, just as is the case with the C headers.

But all this actually reinforces the points you've made.  So maybe I'll give this idea a 
miss after all.  But maybe when I've a bit more time I'll experiment with it.

But that does suggest that good old C macros are considerably quicker to compile than 
mixins.  I haven't tried to compare them.  I suppose that, now that computers are several 
orders of magnitude faster than they were 30 years ago, D has focused on other objectives 
than being as fast as possible to compile.

Stewart.

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