[OT] What are D's values?

[Paul Backus]

On Monday, 4 October 2021 at 23:10:27 UTC, Tejas wrote:
> Can you please list any resources on DbI?
>
> I've been finding it pretty hard to grasp, and I only managed 
> to find a few videos by Andrei on the subject.
>
> Even the d-idioms website doesn't have much.
>
> Any text sources would be really appreciated.
>
> Thank you for reading!

Design by introspection is when you have templated code 
"customize" itself based on the specific type(s) it's 
instantiated with.

One place DbI is used a lot is in `std.range`. For example, 
here's how `std.range`'s documentation describes the return value 
of `retro`:

> Type: auto
>
> A bidirectional range with length if r also provides a length. 
> Or, if r is a random access range, then the return value will 
> be random access as well.

Source: https://phobos.dpldocs.info/std.range.retro.html#returns

Notice those "if" clauses. The return value has a `.length` 
property **if** the original range, `r`, has a `.length` 
property. That's DbI.

How is it done? Internally, `retro` uses introspection features 
like `__traits` and `is()` expressions to check what properties 
`r` has, and uses `static if` to customize its own implementation 
based on the result of those checks.