auto arr = [1, 2, 3] should be a static array, not a GC allocated array

[ryuukk_]

On Thursday, 14 July 2022 at 13:30:58 UTC, jfondren wrote:
> On Thursday, 14 July 2022 at 13:14:59 UTC, ryuukk_ wrote:
>> It is misleading, nobody expect this to be GC allocated
>
> People expect that who try to append to it later on in the 
> function. The book "Learning D" really emphasizes stuff like 
> this, useful but potentially surprising parts of the native 
> types of the language.

Then the compiler should tell them that it is a static array and 
they should be explicit if they want to append

Corner cases from clueless people shouldn't make the default 
useless and misleading


> All languages have stuff like this. D has a performance hazard 
> in treating dynamic arrays like stacks; Go avoids that while 
> having the fun design where appending to a slice might modify a 
> different slice.


I disagree hard, not "all languages have stuff like this" D has 
stuff like this

Maybe Java/C# but they don't have the concept of static arrays, 
again, who's the target audience of D?

>
>> It should be equal to:
>>
>> ```D
>> int[3] arr = [1, 2, 3]
>> ```
>>
>> Also why it is GC allocated without requiring ``new``?
>
> D doesn't have a principle like "GC allocations should all be 
> signposted with `new`". These visual-signposting principles are 
> neat and all, but as long as the language has pervasive 
> function-calling, every single one can violate the principle. 
> What D *does* have is `@nogc`
>
> https://dlang.org/spec/garbage.html#op_involving_gc

It is a mistake then

Little rant:

As time goes by, i'm thinking more and more to finally learn 
language programming and fork D to get rid of all these stuff 
that makes me want to look for an alternative language

Every once in a while i get reminded why i had that thought, 
thanks to issues i encounter like this one, very frustrating when 
you take into account that nobody wants new features and instead 
want to rely on template soup indefinitely

static arrays? just use

```D
  import std;
  auto arr staticArray!int(1,2, 3);
```

"no need to change the language"