A tutorial on D templates

[Andrei Alexandrescu]

On 1/13/12 3:20 PM, Philippe Sigaud wrote:
> https://github.com/PhilippeSigaud/D-templates-tutorial/blob/master/dtemplates.pdf
>
> (click on View Raw)
>
> If you have any comment, criticism, explanation, what have you, I'm game.

This is great! Should I post to reddit, or hold off a bit more?

The document is informative, well written, and beautifully formatted. I 
found the introduction a bit difficult to get into, so I'm submitting a 
few suggestions below. I didn't have time to get through everything, but 
anyway the quality of the text improves very much once it gets into the 
material.

"They are used everywhere in Phobos, D standard library and any D user 
should know about them." -> "They are used everywhere in Phobos---D's 
standard library---and therefore any D user should know about them."

"But, based on C++’s templates as they are, they can be a bit daunting 
at first." -> "But, based on C++’s templates as they are, D templates 
can be a bit daunting at first."

"Well, D’s sane syntax for templates, nifty things like static if, alias 
or tuples cured me of that impression." -> "Well, D’s sane syntax for 
templates and nifty features such as static if, alias, or tuples, cured 
me of that impression." (Generally prefer "such as" to "like".)

"I hope this docu- ment will help you also." -> "I hope this docu- ment 
will help you, too."

"Part III presents other metaprogramming tools: string mixins (18), 
compile- time function evaluation (19) and __traits (20)." -> "Part III 
presents other metaprogramming tools: string mixins (18), compile- time 
function evaluation (19), and __traits (20)." (Use the "Oxford comma" 
throughout.)

"template-y" -> "\mbox{template-y}"

I think italics for comments look a bit baroque, how about slanted text?

"...in the next sections (You’ll see for example..." -> "...in the next 
sections (you’ll see for example..."

"... except inside a (standard) function." -> "except inside a (regular) 
function."

Would be great to adjust the code formatting package to not number 
examples of 1 line long.

"Templates Building Blocks" -> "Template Building Blocks"

"Up to now, templates must seem not that interesting to you..." -> "Up 
to now, templates may not seem all that interesting..."

"It’s both an expression and a declaration, so I’ll call it a 
construct." -> "It’s both a statement and a declaration, so I’ll call it 
a construct." In fact you can call it a declaration because some 
declarations may occur wherever a statement is allowed.



Andrei