why static array can be reassigned with new allocation?

[mw]

On Friday, 14 October 2022 at 19:46:06 UTC, jfondren wrote:
> On Friday, 14 October 2022 at 18:57:44 UTC, mw wrote:
>> Why this code can be compiled and causing runtime error? it 
>> should be caught at compile time!
>
> ```d
> import std.stdio;
>
> void main() {
>     int[3] arr;
>     writeln(arr.ptr);
>     arr = new int[3];
>     writeln(arr.ptr);
>     writeln(typeid(arr));
> }
> ```
>
> output (e.g.):
>
> ```
> 7FFD5EBF1530
> 7FFD5EBF1530
> int[3]
> ```
>
> It's not a reassignment of arr, but a copying of the contents 
> of the dynamic array, and it crashes with an oversized array as 
> the lengths don't match,

This is so confusing, we should have two different syntax for 
this two different semantics:
```
arr = other;  // assign array variable to `other`

arr[] = other[];  // assign array contents
```

I think D has the second form already, then the first form should 
not be a shorthand for the second form.

These two have two different semantics.

If you view the above two statements as in Python (numpy), it's 
very clear their meaning are different:
``` Python
arr = other;  // assign array variable to `other`

arr[:] = other[:];  // assign array contents
```