Templates lots of newbie qs.

[Chris Warwick]

Ok, never used templates before but i think i have the basic idea. Just have 
a few questions and would welcome any corrections / sugestions on way's to 
improve this, my first template.. (surprisingly had very little trouble 
writing this and it compiling, not sure about working tho')

class vector(T)
{

    // fitems will be intialized to default right? So no need for a default 
constructor?

    T[] fitems;

    this(T[] source)
    {
        fitems = source.dup;
    }

    // Am i right in thinking that vector!(int) is a distinct type from T[], 
so how do you pass
    // a template instance of the same time to the constructor? Somthing 
like this???
    // compiles but im not sure if its right..

    this(vector!(T) source)
    {
        fitems = source.fitems.dup;
    }

    void append(T item)
    {
        fitems ~= item;
    }

    bool remove(T item)    // returns true if item removed
    {
        int i = indexOf(item);
        if (i >= 0)
        {
            fitems[i..fitems.length-1] = fitems[i+1..fitems.length];
            fitems.length = fitems.length-1;
            return true;
        }
        else
        {
            return false;
        }
    }

    int indexOf(T item)    // returns -1 if not found
    {
        for (int i = 0; i < fitems.length; i++)
        {
            if (fitems[i] == item) { return i; }
        }
        return -1;
    }

    int length()
    {
        return fitems.length;
    }

    // Do i have the opIndex / opIndexAssign correct?
    // Is there anyway to localy control whether bounds checking is on, so i 
can turn it
    // on or off for just this module?

    T opIndex(int i)
    {
        return fitems[i];
    }

    void opIndexAssign(T item, int index)
    {
        fitems[index] = item;
    }

}

And are class templates value types or referances types?

How well optimized is stuff like this? Will the opIndex/Assign optimize down 
to similar speed as using a basic array?

For basic array stuff like this would it be better to use the "Functions as 
Array Properties" feature? Can that be templatized? Can you writed a generic 
function that takes an array as the first param.. Somthing like this...

template ArrayProps(T)
{
     int indexOf(T[] arr, T item)
    {
        for (int i = 0; i < arr.length; i++)
        {
            if (arr[i] == item) { return i; }
        }
        return -1;
    }
}

ArrayPros(int);
int[] foo = [0,1,2,3,4];
int ibetthisdontwork = foo.indexOf(3);

many thanks,

chris