foo!(bar) ==> foo{bar}

[Steven Schveighoffer]

"Andrei Alexandrescu" wrote
> Leandro Lucarella wrote:
>> Jarrett Billingsley, el  6 de octubre a las 16:04 me escribiste:
>>> On Mon, Oct 6, 2008 at 3:52 PM, Walter Bright
>>> <newshound1 at digitalmars.com> wrote:
>>>> The foo.(bar) syntax seems to be sinking. The foo{bar} seems to be the 
>>>> most
>>>> practical alternative. So, how about putting it in the next D2 release 
>>>> on a
>>>> trial basis, so people can try it out and see how it looks?
>>>>
>>> I guess it's OK but I still don't see why anything has to change.
>>> There are much bigger fish to fry.
>>
>> Amen!
>
> New/potential users are big fish. There has been quite a bit of opinion 
> that the Slashed-Eye Sad Guy is offputting at least at first.

You might be misinterpreting how people on this NG have responded.  Here is 
my anecdote (or at least what I can remember) when I first encountered D 
templates.

I'm reading through the spec, and I get to templates, and they are specified 
with !().  My first reaction is, well that's dumb, why buck the trend?  C++, 
Java, C#, they all use <>, what gives?  Then I read the reasoning and I 
totally understand it.  From that point on, !() looks sooo much better to me 
than <>.  Never once did I not like the choice of !, it was all just a 
knee-jerk reaction to why Walter didn't choose something that looks the same 
as C++, especially when there are so many cases of him copying C++ syntax. 
It could have been @() or {} and I still would have reacted the same.

My expectation for a new user to D is:

1. The user comes from a Java/C++/C#/etc. background and has the same 
initial reaction I had.  Then, depending on their personality, they get 
defensively angry or say, 'oh yeah, that makes a lot of sense!' and are done 
with it.  I'm guessing the latter would be more common.

2. They have no background in templates, and they say 'What's a template?'

Now, change the template syntax to {} or @() or whatever (clearly not <>, as 
there are technical problems with it):

1. User comes from Java/C++/C#/etc., has the same initial reaction 'Why is 
this different?  Why make things different than C++ or whatever since 
everything else looks like C++?', then they read the explanation and either 
get defensively angry, or grasp the reasoning and move on.  Again, guessing 
the latter will be more common.

2. They have no background in templates, and they say 'What's a template?'

Bottom line, I believe it matters not in the least what syntax is used. 
Templates are a hard concept to grasp to those who have never used them, 
regardless of the syntax.

Just my view.  Note I can't speak for others that said they were put off by 
the !() syntax, but at least that's how I interpreted what they meant.

-Steve