DIP62: Volatile type qualifier for unoptimizable variables in embedded programming

[Walter Bright via Digitalmars-d]

On 7/15/2014 4:52 PM, Steve Sobel wrote:
> So in my opinion, and without prescribing the exact solution,
> volatility is an important enough concept in embedded to merit a
> standard solution that can be mechanically verified.

There is another way. The peek() and poke() functions are primitive. You can 
wrap a "pointer to volatile" in its own type, and in that type, control access 
to the pointer so it cannot be used outside of peek/poke.

For example, off the top of my head:

struct VolatilePointerToUint {
   private:
     size_t ptr;
   public:
     this(size_t ptr) { this.ptr = ptr; }
     uint read() { return peek(cast(uint*)ptr); }
     void write(uint value) { poke(cast(uint*)ptr, value); }
}

You'd probably wish to flesh this out a bit more, but it's the general idea. 
It's a zero cost abstraction. D has very capable abilities to create types that 
are restricted versions of other types - this should be explored and exhausted 
before considering language extensions.