Compile Time vs Run Time

[Timon Gehr]

On 1/12/24 07:06, Walter Bright wrote:
> 
> The compile-time vs runtime issue is the only thing left standing where 
> the advantage goes to DIP1036.

This is not true, DIP1027 also suffers from other drawbacks. For example:

- DIP1027 has already been rejected.
- Format string has to be passed as a runtime argument.
- Format string has to be parsed. (Whether at runtime or compile time.)
- Format string is not transparent to the library user, they have to 
manually escape '%'.
- No simple way to detect the end of the part of the argument list that 
is part of the istring.
- Cannot support nested istrings. (I guess the `enum Format: string;` 
would mitigate this to some extent.)

DIP1027 has the following advantages:
- No interspersed runtime arguments not carrying any runtime data, this 
is a bit easier to consume.
- Fewer template instantiations.


In any case, I think the compile-time vs runtime issue is the most 
significant. I do not want a solution that does not integrate well with 
metaprogramming, it's just not worth it.