What does 'inline' mean?

[jmh530]

On Monday, 8 June 2020 at 14:09:04 UTC, Manu wrote:
> [snip]
> It's not a hint at all. It's a mechanical tool; it marks 
> symbols with internal linkage, and it also doesn't emit them if 
> it's never referenced. The compiler may not choose to ignore 
> that behaviour, it's absolutely necessary, and very important.
>[snip]

Perhaps it would be helpful to split the discussion into inline 
as a linkage attribute vs. inline as an tool for inline 
expansion? D has no linkage attribute that has the same behavior 
as inline or extern inline, and you believe that is important.