[dmd-internals] [Proposal] Additional operator overloadings for multidimentional indexing and slicing

[kenji hara]

I'd like to propose a new language feature to D community.

I've opened a enhancement issue half a year ago.

  Issue 6798 - Integrate overloadings for multidimentional indexing and slicing
  http://d.puremagic.com/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=6798

And, a pull request for implementing it is now available.

  https://github.com/D-Programming-Language/dmd/pull/443

----
This patch is an additional enhancement of opDollar (issue 3474 and #442).
It would enable the mixing operator overloadings of indexing and slicing.

The expression:
  a[$-1, 2..$]
Translated to:
  a.opIndex(a.opDollar!0 - 1, a.opSlice!1(2, a.opDollar!1))

If it is possible, the interval lwr..upr inside bracket is converted
to a.opSlice!(dimension)(lwr, upr).
This enhancement doesn't break existing codes.

(Same table more readable is in
 https://github.com/D-Programming-Language/dmd/pull/443 )

   | expression         | newly added overloading  -->
exists/fallbcked overloading
---+--------------------+------------------------------------------------------------
   | a[i0, ...]         | xxx  -->  a.opIndex(i0, ...)
   | a[]                | a.opIndex()  -->  a.opSlice()
   | a[l..u]            | a.opIndex(a.opSlice!0(l, u))  -->  a.opSlice(l, u)
 v | a[l..u, ...]       | a.opIndex(a.opSlice!0(l, u), ...)  -->  xxx
---+--------------------+------------------------------------------------------------
   | op a[i0, ...]      | xxx  -->  a.opIndexUnary!op(i0, ...)
   | op a[]             | a.opIndexUnary!op()  -->  a.opSliceUnary!op()
   | op a[l..u]         | a.opIndexUnary!op(a.opSlice!0(l, u))  -->
a.opSliceUnary!op(l, u)
 v | op a[l..u, ...]    | a.opIndexUnary!op(a.opSlice!0(l, u), ...)  -->  xxx
---+--------------------+------------------------------------------------------------
   | a[i0, ...] = v     | xxx  -->  a.opIndexAssign(v, i0, ...)
   | a[] = v            | a.opIndexAssign(v)  -->  a.opSliceAssign(v)
   | a[l..u] = v        | a.opIndexAssign(v, a.opSlice!0(l, u))  -->
a.opSliceAssign(v, l, u)
 v | a[l..u, ...] = v   | a.opIndexAssign(v, a.opSlice!0(l, u), ...)  -->  xxx
---+--------------------+------------------------------------------------------------
   | a[i0, ...] op= v   | xxx  -->  a.opIndexOpAssign!op(v, i0, ...)
   | a[] op= v          | a.opIndexOpAssign!op(v)  -->  a.opSliceOpAssign!op(v)
   | a[l..u] op= v      | a.opIndexOpAssign!op(v, a.opSlice!0(l, u))
-->  a.opSliceOpAssign!op(v, l, u)
 v | a[l..u, ...] op= v | a.opIndexOpAssign!op(v, a.opSlice!0(l, u),
...)  -->  xxx

Thanks.

Kenji Hara