[Issue 691] New: Object.print ought to be removed or at least deprecated

[d-bugmail at puremagic.com]

http://d.puremagic.com/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=691

           Summary: Object.print ought to be removed or at least deprecated
           Product: D
           Version: 0.177
          Platform: All
               URL: http://www.digitalmars.com/d/archives/digitalmars/D/2558
                    6.html
        OS/Version: All
            Status: NEW
          Severity: enhancement
          Priority: P2
         Component: Phobos
        AssignedTo: bugzilla at digitalmars.com
        ReportedBy: smjg at iname.com


The Object class contains the method

    void print();

Its flaw is that it gives the application using it no choice of what to output
to.  Different applications, or even parts of the same application, may want to
output variously to stdout, stderr, a log file or a GUI window, just to name a
few possibilities.

And it serves no real purpose.  If a program wants to output the string
representation of something, it can use .toString directly, which is much more
versatile.

While in theory print could be overridden e.g. to show more information than
would appear in the toString, this isn't the way to do it.  Better would be for
individual classes that want to do this to define a function such as
toLongString.  A class designer may also want to have the information output
piece by piece to avoid having to allocate enough memory to hold the whole
output at once - again, such a class would define its own print function. 
Preferably one that takes an OutputStream parameter rather than having the
destination hard-coded as with the current Object.print.


I therefore agree with the proposals of various people that it should be got
rid of.  Partly because of its lack of practical use, but mainly because of its
flaw.  It should at least be deprecated ASAP.  Removing it altogether would
require a recompile, but at least if this is done before 1.0 then it would save
having to recompile later.


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