Qt bindings for D

[Abdulhaq]

On Tuesday, 15 October 2013 at 09:38:15 UTC, Max Samukha wrote:
> On Monday, 14 October 2013 at 09:45:18 UTC, Abdulhaq wrote:
>>>
>>> I recommend to dump it and start from scratch. A clang-based 
>>> generator would be an interesting option to explore. Or, if 
>>> you want to preserve your sanity, just write Qt applications 
>>> in C++/QML.
>>
>> Hi Max, so why dump it? I can see a few reasons why you might
>> propose that:
>>
>> 1) You think it's a dead end because QtJambi is dead, so it 
>> would
>> be problematic to move it forward with new versions of Qt
>
> That is one reason. Also, QtJambi is based on a limited and 
> outdated C++ parser, and we had problems getting necessary 
> information from it. When Qt moves to C++11, the situation will 
> get worse. So I think it is reasonable to switch to clang soon.
>

OK I see (unfortunately !)

> Long story short, D allows for two approaches to bindings like 
> QtD:
>
> 1. The traditional one is to allocate "shells" on GC heap and 
> have a set of manually specified rules for ownership transfers 
> and reference count adjustments.
> 2. The other is more interesting - abandon the idea of 
> reference/ownership annotations and go with semi-automatic 
> memory management as it is in Qt, with no reliance on the GC.
>
> At some point I wanted to switch to 2 completely, so QtD is 
> somewhere between 1 and 2, quite a mess.

I did notice when in the code that it was partially in a 
transitional state - now I know what you were doing!

I have to confess that in the light of this and some of your 
other posts, the siren call of 'start again' is singing in my ear.