Template argument deduction and default args

[Manu via Digitalmars-d]

On 24 July 2014 19:37, John Colvin via Digitalmars-d <
digitalmars-d at puremagic.com> wrote:

> On Thursday, 24 July 2014 at 04:53:41 UTC, Manu via Digitalmars-d wrote:
>
>> I'm running into consistent problems with default args and argument
>> deduction in templates.
>> There seem to be 2 consistent classes of problem:
>>
>> struct S(size_t len = 10)
>> {
>>   ubyte[len] data;
>> }
>>
>> S!100 x; // this works fine
>> S y; // this doesn't work (!)
>> S!() z; // this works
>>
>> The template arg has a default arg, why require !() ??
>> This causes problems in meta code, where you want to create an instance of
>> some T, and T may be a normal type with no template args, in which case
>> !()
>> is invalid, but a template type with default args should also be
>> acceptable, but it doesn't work because the meta code doesn't specify !().
>>
>
> This opens a whole can of worms. It's very useful to be able to
> distinguish between templates and their instantiations. Seeing as D's alias
> system works on a pass-by-name system, you can't have a system where simply
> referring to a template instantiates it with no arguments.
>
> Apart from anything else it would break *so* much code.
>

Isn't the call to the constructor enough to distinguish it is an
instantiation rather than a reference to the template itself?

S is a template
S!() is a type
S(x,y,z) is a call to it's constructor, the expression has a type

What is the useful distinction between S!()(x,y,z) and S(x,y,z)? How does
either one of them make referring to the template 'S' difficult?
Is there some conflicting syntax where the parentheses mean something else
when S perceived as a template? Why isn't the same problem applicable to
function templates?
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