[Issue 13256] New: Update std.range.ElementType to support all strings uniformly

[via Digitalmars-d-bugs]

https://issues.dlang.org/show_bug.cgi?id=13256

          Issue ID: 13256
           Summary: Update std.range.ElementType to support all strings
                    uniformly
           Product: D
           Version: D2
          Hardware: x86_64
                OS: Windows
            Status: NEW
          Severity: enhancement
          Priority: P1
         Component: Phobos
          Assignee: nobody at puremagic.com
          Reporter: maidenphil at hotmail.com

K so I played around and noticed that the type of std.array.front for strings
and wstrings is dchar, but immutable(dchar) for dstrings.

It turns out that std.array.front makes a distinction when it's a narrow string
(as per std.traits.isNarrowString) and dstring is not one. I think the
distinction is made to avoid decoding when unnecessary.

However, that distinction results in some lack of consistency. Here are my
propositions:
1 - std.array.front returns dchar for all strings
2 - Consider reviewing std.array so that it does not make a distinction whether
it's a string or not. Indexing in a string produces an immutable(char). A range
wrapper around a string located in an array module should produce the same type
in my opinion. In the case somebody needs to decode a string, provide a range
wrapper in std.utf.

Thx!

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