Operator overloading or alternatives to expression templates

[Timon Gehr via Digitalmars-d]

On 09/15/2015 06:53 PM, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
> On 09/14/2015 03:35 PM, Timon Gehr wrote:
>> On 09/14/2015 08:09 PM, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
>>> On 09/13/2015 10:06 AM, Martin Nowak wrote:
>>>> ...
>>>> - language regularization
>>>>
>>>>    It's surprising to find these "arbitrary" language limitations.
>>>>    The non-predictability of what's possible has always been a huge
>>>> issue
>>>> for me with C++, i.e. you come up with an idea, spend 4 hours
>>>> implementing it only to find out that the small detail x isn't
>>>> feasible.
>>>
>>> This is the case in all powerful languages.
>>
>> That's an overgeneralization.
>
> Aren't they all :o).
> ...

I guess we have now established that there are at least two of them. :P

>> Furthermore, having arbitrary designed-in irregularities is not
>> comparable to implementing a system whose emergent behavior is not
>> understood sufficiently well. (D is guilty of both, but the former is
>> much easier to fix than the latter.)
>>
>>> Martin Odersky told me there's a constant problem with Scala ...
>>
>> Both C++ and Scala have accidentally Turing-complete type systems.
>
> I think what I'm trying to say is "I'm trying to do this very advanced
> thing and the language support is insufficient" is the kind of argument
> that needs to be made and taken with caution.
> ...

This is certainly the case, and I believe the necessary care has been 
applied. The language support required isn't actually very advanced, nor 
are all usage scenarios. Arbitrary restrictions are usually design mistakes.