Major performance problem with std.array.front()

[Walter Bright]

On 3/6/2014 7:06 PM, Walter Bright wrote:
> On 3/6/2014 6:37 PM, Walter Bright wrote:
>> Is there any hope of fixing this?
>
> Is there any way we can provide an upgrade path for this? Silent breakage is
> terrible. Any ideas?

Ok, I have a plan. Each step will be separated by at least one version:

1. implement decode() as an algorithm for string types, so one can write:

     string s;
     s.decode.algorithm...

suggest that people start doing that instead of:

     s.algorithm...

2. Emit warning when people use std.array.front(s) with strings.

3. Deprecate std.array.front for strings.

4. Error for std.array.front for strings.

5. Implement new std.array.front for strings that doesn't decode.