std.conv - custom string to struct conversion ?

[monarch_dodra]

On Friday, 2 August 2013 at 07:59:59 UTC, Jonathan M Davis wrote:
> On Friday, August 02, 2013 08:40:51 monarch_dodra wrote:
>> There was a request for enhancement to provide a "fromString" 
>> for
>> arbitrary types. The idea is that once we have that, then
>> functions such as parse or to!S(string) will be generic, and 
>> work
>> on mostly anything. Unfortunatly, (AFAIK), nobody is working on
>> this.
>> 
>> Here is a discussion I opened:
>> http://forum.dlang.org/thread/gzodptjyzpqnhxctbbuv@forum.dlang.org
>> 
>> ...and I just noticed it ends with me saying "I'll try to 
>> write a
>> DIP then :)" and then not doing it :/
>
> What's the point of fromString when a constructor will do the 
> job just fine?
>
> - Jonathan M Davis

Really? Because it's not generic. Unless I'm missing something, 
I'm sure you can appreciate that the goal is to allow:

to!S("string")
or
myFile.readf("Entry: %s", &s);

And a simple constructor doesn't (*CAN'T*) allow that.