How to do "cast(ubyte[4])some_uint" in D1?

[Steven Schveighoffer]

On Thu, 02 Jun 2011 05:35:40 -0400, Nick Sabalausky <a at a.a> wrote:

> In D2, I can treat a uint as an array of ubytes by doing this:
>
> uint num = /+...whatever...+/;
> ubyte[] = cast(ubyte[4])num;
>
> How do I do that in D1?
>
> IIRC, D1 requires an explicit slice operator to convert from a  
> static-array
> to a slice/dynamic-array, so I tried this:
>
> ubyte[] = (cast(ubyte[4])num)[];
>
> But I get the error:
> Error: e2ir: cannot cast num of type uint to type ubyte[4u]

We can learn from C here :)

ubyte[] x = (cast(ubyte *)&num)[0..4];

Essentially, pointers are *always* castable to one another, and do not go  
through any translations.  Go to pointer-land, then back, and all your  
casts shall work.  It's how C++'s reinterpret_cast works.

-Steve