[phobos] isStringLike

[Andrei Alexandrescu via phobos]

On 10/26/15 12:08 PM, Dmitry Olshansky via phobos wrote:
> On 26-Oct-2015 18:15, Andrei Alexandrescu via phobos wrote:
>> Hi folks, isStringLike is a fine idea but there are a number of issues
>> I noticed while looking at the PR and the related pieces it works with.
>>
> [snip]
>> I think a string-like structure is:
>>
>> (a) an array of characters or a subtype thereof
>>
>> (b) some other forward range with ElementType some character type, and
>> potentially ElementEncodingType a different character type as well.
>
> Sadly the main reason for isStringLike is
> (c) alias this to something that has a or b defined above.

Nonono, (a) includes that case ("... or a subtype thereof"). The point 
of "alias this" is it makes subtyping happen. Any failure to do so is a 
failure of "alias this" and needs fixing.

> Release is unavoidable. Let us ship it then figure out the optimal
> string like definition. The whole auto-decoding mess together with alias
> this mess is important to solve but must not prevent us from releasing
> on time.

If we release now, we're stuck with isStringLike forever. Any chance of 
at least making it package?


Andrei