Embrace the from template?

tide tide at tide.tide
Sat Aug 25 00:40:54 UTC 2018


On Friday, 24 August 2018 at 06:41:35 UTC, Jonathan Marler wrote:
> Ever since I read 
> https://dlang.org/blog/2017/02/13/a-new-import-idiom/ I've very 
> much enjoyed using the new `from` template.  It unlocks new 
> idioms in D and have been so useful that I thought it might be 
> a good addition to the core language.  I've found that having 
> it in a different place in each project and always having to 
> remember to import it makes it much less ubiquitous for me.
>
> One idea is we could add this template to `object.d`.  This 
> would allow it to be used from any module that uses druntime 
> without having to import it first.  The template itself is also 
> very friendly to "bloat" because it only has a single input 
> parameter which is just a string, extremely easy to memoize.  
> Also, unless it is instantiated, adding it to object.d will 
> have virtually no overhead (just a few AST nodes which would 
> dwarfed by what's already in object.d).  It would also be very 
> easy to add, a single PR with 4 lines of code to druntime and 
> we're done.
>
> Of course, if we don't want to encourage use of the `from` 
> template then this is not what we'd want.  Does anyone have any 
> data/experience with from?  All I know is my own usage so feel 
> free to chime in with yours.

What uses does this actually have, I only see one example from 
the article and it is an oversimplistic example that effectively 
translates to either phobos being used or not being used. All the 
extra bloat this template would add to the already bloated if 
constraints is not welcome at all. The potential small benefit 
this might add isn't worth the unreadable mess it will turn code 
into.


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