[phobos] returning void[] from std.file.read()

[Robert Jacques]

On Sun, 26 Sep 2010 00:32:41 -0400, Jonathan M Davis <jmdavisProg at gmx.com>  
wrote:

> On Saturday 25 September 2010 19:46:37 Robert Jacques wrote:
>> On Sat, 25 Sep 2010 17:17:58 -0400, Andrei Alexandrescu
>>
>> <andrei at erdani.com> wrote:
>> > This has come up in  
>> http://d.puremagic.com/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=1482.
>> > Should std.file.read() return void[] or ubyte[]? There's one matter  
>> with
>> > assuming that void[] may contain pointers (which is not the case for
>> > something read from a file), so possibly ubyte[] is a more accurate  
>> type
>> > for describng raw bytes.
>> >
>> > What are the pros and cons of returning void[] vs. ubyte[]?
>> >
>> >
>> > Andrei
>>
>> Pro:
>> Well, the very first thing I always do with std.file.read is to cast the
>> data to the type I'm working with. So:
>>
>> auto data = cast(float[])read("my_data.raw");
>>
>> vs.
>>
>> auto data = cast(float[])(cast(void[])read("my_data.raw"));
>>
>> Having read return ubyte would mean adding an extra cast in several use
>> cases
>
> Why would you need two casts? I would expect that one would suffice  
> without the
> need to cast to void[] in between.
>
> - Jonathan M Davis

Sorry, you're right. Though I'm surprised at this behavior, since doing a  
similar reinterpretation cast between incompatible classes require going  
through void* first.