Lost a new commercial user this week :(

[Jacob Carlborg via Digitalmars-d]

On 2014-12-27 09:32, Mike Parker wrote:

> The proverbial straw that prompted my blog rant back then was to do with
> std.string. I wanted to split a string on a specific character. So I
> looked in the std.string docs for a split function. There wasn't one.
> There's a 'splitLines' -- I don't recall if it existed then, but it
> wouldn't have been what I was looking for anyway. So I searched the docs
> and found std.array.split. I don't recall what the docs looked like
> then, but now this is what we have.
>
> pure @safe S[] split(S)(S s) if (isSomeString!S);
>
> This above is grokkable -- it's fairly clear that S is a string and that
> an array of strings is returned. Then we get these next two versions:
>
> auto split(R, E)(R r, E delim) if (isForwardRange!R &&
> is(typeof(ElementType!R.init == E.init)));
> auto split(alias isTerminator, R)(R r) if (isForwardRange!R &&
> is(typeof(unaryFun!isTerminator(r.front))));
>
> Umm... all I want is to split a string on a specific character. What's
> all this mess about ElementTypes and Rs and Es and unaryFuns and....
>
> The description, "Eagerly splits s into an array, using delim as the
> delimiter." suggests this is what I'm looking for. I suppose I can just
> pass it a string and a character and see what happens. But, that's just
> trial and errro. The docs don't help me understand it. I don't like
> using functions I don't understand. Heaven help me if I find a need for
> std.array.join:
>
> ElementEncodingType!(ElementType!RoR)[] join(RoR, R)(RoR ror, R sep) if
> (isInputRange!RoR && isInputRange!(Unqual!(ElementType!RoR)) &&
> isInputRange!R && is(Unqual!(ElementType!(ElementType!RoR)) ==
> Unqual!(ElementType!R)));
> ElementEncodingType!(ElementType!RoR)[] join(RoR)(RoR ror) if
> (isInputRange!RoR && isInputRange!(Unqual!(ElementType!RoR)));
>
> So the function to split a string on line breaks, which is
> string-specific, is in std.string. The function to split a string on
> whitespace, again string-specific, is in std.array. The function to
> split any range on any element is in std.array. Which means I have to
> think of strings not just as arrays, but as ranges, and have to
> understand that some range functions are in std.range, others in
> std.array and still others in std.algorithm. That means that I don't
> always know where to look when I want to do something I've not done
> before. Even if I do manage to find what I'm looking for, I then may
> discover that it doesn't work because I want an array, but the function
> returns a range and I need to convert it to an array, which means arrays
> aren't really ranges like I thought and...

There's also "split" vs "splitter" and "join" vs "joiner". This doesn't 
make it easier.

-- 
/Jacob Carlborg