[Issue 23833] auto dereferncing does work with alias this

[d-bugmail at puremagic.com]

https://issues.dlang.org/show_bug.cgi?id=23833

RazvanN <razvan.nitu1305 at gmail.com> changed:

           What    |Removed                     |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
             Status|NEW                         |RESOLVED
                 CC|                            |razvan.nitu1305 at gmail.com
         Resolution|---                         |WONTFIX

--- Comment #1 from RazvanN <razvan.nitu1305 at gmail.com> ---
The compiler does auto dereferencing only when the lhs of a dot expression is a
pointer to an aggregate type (struct, class, interface, union). That does not
mean that a pointer is going to always be dereferenced automatically. If that
would be the case then that would confuse the overload resolution for
situations such as:

foo(int a);
foo(int* a);

Int* x;
foo(x); -> ambiguity

Of course, a set of rules can be invented to properly implement this, however,
the current rules are much simpler to explain: "Whenever the lhs of a dot
expression is a pointer to an aggregate type, it will automatically be
dereferenced".

As such, in your example, `foo(x)` is an error because there is no dot
expression involved and type of x is Int*.

foo(x.val) works because you have a dot expression and the compiler rewrites to
foo((*x).val).

foo(*x) works because type Int has an alias this.

As such, this bug report is an enhancement request at best, however, most
likely it is not going to fly because the current rules are simple and work,
whereas what is proposed is going to affect parts of the compiler in serious
ways for no apparent benefit.

Closing as WONTFIX.

--