Text in D article

[Daniel Keep]

Bill Baxter wrote:
> Max Samuha wrote:
>> On Sat, 18 Nov 2006 15:59:33 +0100, Alexander Panek
>> <a.panek at brainsware.org> wrote:
>>
>>> PDF would be great, too.
>>>
>>> Tydr Schnubbis wrote:
>>>> Daniel Keep wrote:
>>>>> Here's a draft of an article which, hopefully, will explain some of
>>>>> the
>>>>> details of how text in D works.  Any constructive criticism is
>>>>> welcomed,
>>>>> along with edits or corrections.
>>>>>
>>>> Any chance of an .rtf, .doc, or even .txt? :)
>> For those who is still on Windows :), thiere is a free and compact doc
>> viewer that supports the open office format
>> http://www.officeviewers.com/ 
> 
> Thanks for the link, Max.
> 
> Daniel, I like it.  Seems quite clear to me.
> 
> One minor thing.  In one section you recommend just using dchar[]
> everywhere as a solution for not slicing characters in the middle.  But
> then in the next section you recommend using std.string as a
> comprehensive solution for manipulating strings.  Unfortunately
> std.string really only deals with char[] strings.  So you might want to
> point out explicitly the dilemma that poses to the developer:  If you go
> with dchar[] and have to do a lot of string munging, you're likely to
> find lots of toUTF8's and toUCS32's popping up in your code.  If you go
> with char[] you've got to remember that mystring[1..$] may not mean what
> you think it means.
> 
> --bb

You are, of course, right.

"OK; if you're doing array indexing or slicing, stick to dchar; if
you're going to be using std.string, stick to char."

Doesn't really sound good.  It implies that either the standard library
has a hole in it or that indexing and slicing on char[] and wchar[]
*should* work as expected.

I think I'll change the article so that it's correct, but here's a
question for Walter:

  Is std.string going to support wchar[]s and dchar[]s?  If not, why?

Heh, they say the best way to learn something is to teach it.  Guess I'm
still learning :P

	-- Daniel

-- 
Unlike Knuth, I have neither proven or tried the above; it may not even
make sense.

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