Array initializers and inheritance

[Chris Nicholson-Sauls]

Frank Benoit (keinfarbton) wrote:
> I think, the array initialization feature is not so nice. The array
> takes its type from the type of the first initializer. This is
> absolutely ugly.

You are correct that it takes its type from the first element.  In the vast majority of 
cases (personal experience, might not be general) this hasn't been a problem.  Still, I do 
feel a little antsy sometimes about putting that cast() at the beginning.

> I would prefer if you can write this
> _gameObjects = new GameObject [ new Player(), new Target(Direction.Up,
> 0, 0)];

If one uses the CashewUtils array library (cashew.utils.array, available from DSource) 
then you can do:
# _gameObjects = array!(GameObject)(new Player, new Target(Direction.Up, 0, 0));

Still not perfeclty ideal, of course.  This is my current personal (biased) preferance. ;)

> The second bad thing is, they tend to generate static arrays. So often
> you need to append a [] to convert the static array into a dynamic one.

As far as I know, this shouldn't be neccesary.  If I remember right, static arrays 
implicitly cast to dynamic arrays (but not the other way around).  In fact, the extra [] 
at the end doesn't cast the array at all, but rather takes a full slice of it.  Which 
still has the desired effect, but...

> When generating D code, i use array initialization and cast every member
> to the type of the array element and append [] to every such
> initializer. This code looks really ugly.

You only have to cast the first one, as this is what determines the array's type.

-- Chris Nicholson-Sauls