Lifetime study group

[Andrei Alexandrescu via Digitalmars-d]

Hello everyone,


Following a number of discussions with Walter regarding lifetime 
management for class objects, we've had a small epiphany: we need to 
frame collaboration better. Let me explain.

There are a number of very good folks here with type system-y stuff: 
Timon, Amaury, Michel, and more. For all I know each of them is better 
than I could be. In the past Walter and I would show DIP74 and people 
would point out mistakes and insufficiencies in it. That was suboptimal; 
it has put potential collaborators in a contrarian, negative position. 
Instead, we should co-opt our talented contributors to do positive work, 
not spend time countering inferior work.

For what I know Amaury is working alone on a DIP regarding ownership 
types. That's great, but I think we could do even better by helping a 
more collaborative environment.

So by this I'm asking folks' participation to a study group on object 
lifetime. Walter and I believe we must make reference counting for 
classes work, and that Rust-style schemes are too complex for their own 
good. But we're very willing to be convinced otherwise.

Normally we'd be holding this on the forum, but as we all know, forum 
discussions tend to meander a lot and lose focus. For that reason, 
please write me email about joining a mailing list dedicated to 
discussions on object lifetime - a study group. The outcome should be a 
DIP that moves forward safe lifetime management for D.


Thanks,

Andrei