@property - take it behind the woodshed and shoot it?

[deadalnix]

On Friday, 25 January 2013 at 06:21:59 UTC, Jonathan M Davis 
wrote:
> If you make opDispatch @property, then you can't use it with 
> normal functions,
> and if you don't make it @property, then it can't be used with 
> property
> functions. And you can't overload on @property, so opDispatch 
> is pretty much
> screwed with regards to properties at this point. It's 
> certainly fixable, but
> there will need to be a (small) change in the language to do so.
>

OK, so opDispatch must definitively be transformed ! I have to 
say I didn't saw that coming.

It isn't that big of a deal if we consider we rewrite that way :

a.b => a.opDispatch!"b"
a.b!T => a.opDispatch!("b", T)

No need for opDispatch to actually be a function.

According to what is passed as string, opDispatch can resolve 
itself as a function or a delegate. See example :

class Madness {
     private void function(Madness)[string] fun;

     @property
     auto opDispatch(string name)() {
         immutable f = fun[name];
         return {
             return f(this);
         };
     }
}

A proper inlining mechanism should handle that.