Major performance problem with std.array.front()

[Andrei Alexandrescu]

On 3/6/14, 7:52 PM, Walter Bright wrote:
> 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.

This would kill D. I am not exaggerating.

Andrei