The stately := operator feature proposal

[Jonathan M Davis]

On Thursday, May 30, 2013 12:38:09 Timon Gehr wrote:
> On 05/30/2013 10:50 AM, Jonathan M Davis wrote:
> > Personally, I don't think think that the extra complication caused by
> > having another syntax for something that we already have is worth it,
> > regardless of whether it's aesthetically pleasing or not.
> 
> The complexity argument is not a strong argument for such a simple
> feature (It takes around 10 minutes to implement in a compiler and 2s to
> learn.), especially given the existing complexity of D.

Except that even if the feature doesn't add a lot of complexity by itself, 
each feature you add to the language adds to the total complexity, and it adds 
up. If we were willing to add new features simply because they didn't add much 
complexity, pretty soon, you'd have quite a bit of complexity. New features 
need to add a real benefit to be worth complicating the language yet further. 
And I don't think that this does by a long shot. auto already provides us with 
this functionality. It's just that the syntax for auto doesn't fit the OP's 
tastes.

- Jonathan M Davis