My first D module - Critiques welcome.

[monarch_dodra]

On Monday, 23 December 2013 at 22:46:24 UTC, Gary Willoughby 
wrote:
> I like it and it seems you are grasping D well. I wonder if the 
> entire implementation could be done using templates and all 
> done at compile time? It would be interesting to explore.
>
> int year    = fromRoman!("DXLIX");
> string year = toRoman!(2013);
>
> Very similar to how [octal][1] is implemented;
>
> [1]: http://dlang.org/phobos/std_conv.html#.octal

I was about to submit an "eval" function which would render this 
kind of stuff obsolete. The idea is that since D has CTFE 
built-in, such templates are not needed, since you can do:
enum year = fromRoman("DXLIX");

The "problem" is that is you want a *variable* that is 
initialized *to* a certain value, but don't want to pay for the 
initialization, you have to write:
enum yearEnum = fromRoman("DXLIX");
int year = yearEnum;

"eval" (which is documented in the docs, but isn't in phobos), 
would allow:

int year = eval!(fromRoman!("DXLIX"));

I think such a generic solution is a better approach, and 
generally useful regardless of what you are dealing with.