study: use checkedint as a drop-in replacement of native long

[mw]

On Tuesday, 18 August 2020 at 01:23:01 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu 
wrote:
> On 8/17/20 4:53 PM, mw wrote:
>> On Monday, 17 August 2020 at 18:10:16 UTC, H. S. Teoh wrote:
>>> On Mon, Aug 17, 2020 at 05:58:16PM +0000, mw via 
>>> Digitalmars-d wrote:
>>>> On Monday, 17 August 2020 at 17:15:59 UTC, H. S. Teoh wrote:
>>> [...]
>>>> > Chain assignment fix: > 
>>>> > https://github.com/dlang/phobos/pull/7599
>>>>
>>>> Thanks for the PR, I just added comments: does this fix also 
>>>> work for mixed native & checked chain assignment? i.e. add 
>>>> to unittest:
>>>>
>>>> ```
>>>>   long la, lb;
>>>>   Checked!long ca, cb;
>>>>
>>>>   la = ca = lb = cb;  // mixed chain assign
>>>>   ca = la = cb = lb;
>>>> ```
>>>
>>> Currently, it doesn't work.  I'm on the fence about whether 
>>> it should: the whole point of using Checked is that you don't 
>>> want to automatically convert to the native type because the 
>>> converted value will lose the protections conferred by Check. 
>>> Assigning a Checked to a native type *might* be a mistake - 
>>> you thought the variable was Checked but it wasn't, so 
>>> subsequent operations on it no longer has Checked semantics 
>>> even though
>> 
>> Yes, that's the principle we all agree. However, we are 
>> talking about opAssign() here.
>> 
>> The user specifies his/her intention via the variable's type 
>> declaration, e.g. native `long` vs checked `Long`. The 
>> *subsequent* operations you talking about will be on user 
>> specified variable (type), there will be no surprise here: if 
>> the LHS is declared as a `long`, the subsequent operations 
>> will be on `long`, and if the LHS is `Long`, the subsequent 
>> operations will be on `Long`, all as user has specified.
>> 
>> opAssign() just make the boxing/unboxing life easier between 
>> these two types. And there is not any mathematical operation 
>> performed inside opAssign(), hence for this particular 
>> function, native == checked is always true. So I think let 
>> opAssign() return the underlying type will make the drop-in 
>> replacement process more smooth, and without extra correctness 
>> concern.
>
> Whenever I implement opAssign I have it return void and try to 
> remember to propose that the compiler takes care of chained 
> assignments by itself.
>
> Requiring user-defined assignment to `return *this;` was goofy 
> in C++. Requiring user-defined assignment to `return this;` is 
> goofy in D. Assignment should return void and the compiler 
> should take care of it.


Right, the library fix (work-around) is sub-optimal, it's better 
be fixed by the compiler.

@Walter, it's your turn :-)