static array with inferred size

[Jonathan M Davis]

On Wednesday, September 20, 2017 01:36:43 Andrei Alexandrescu via 
Digitalmars-d wrote:
> On 9/19/17 8:47 PM, Steven Schveighoffer wrote:
> > This needs to happen.
> >
> > e.g.:
> >
> > char[$] arr = "hello"; // syntax up for debate, but I like this.
> >
> > I can't think of a correct way to do this that doesn't heap-allocate and
> > is DRY.
> >
> > D is so powerful, it's a huge shame it can't figure this one out.
> >
> > issue: https://issues.dlang.org/show_bug.cgi?id=481
> >
> > Fix that was merged: https://github.com/dlang/dmd/pull/3615
> >
> > And then reverted: https://github.com/dlang/dmd/pull/4373
> >
> > Maybe there was an issue with the implementation? Can it be redone?
> >
> > -Steve
>
> The argument was it can be done trivially with a library solution. --
> Andrei

I have yet to see a library solution that is able to accept the full range
of arguments that you can give when you provide the length. The closest that
I was able to come up with didn't work with VRP, and most of the other
solutions I've seen only accept compile-time arguments, meaning that you
can't having any variables in the elements used to initialize the static
array. I opened

https://issues.dlang.org/show_bug.cgi?id=16779

a while ago, since with that enhancement implemented, it _is_ possible to do
the same thing that T[$] = would do, but without that, I don't know of any
way to get the full functionality that we get right now when the size isn't
inferred.

Now, I think that something like T[$] = is a very improvement syntactically,
so I'd be in favor of it anyway, but regardless, as far as I can tell, if we
want this full functionality, we need to improve to the language/compiler -
be it by adding syntax for infering the size to the language itself or by
fixing it so that VRP works properly with IFTI and auto ref.

- Jonathan M Davis