ref returns and properties

[Jarrett Billingsley]

On Sun, Jan 25, 2009 at 3:00 PM, Andrei Alexandrescu
<SeeWebsiteForEmail at erdani.org> wrote:
> But these are too many. These should suffice:
>
> class Host
> {
>     property prop
>     {
>         T get();
>         void acquire(ref T value) { ... }
>         void release(ref T value) { ... }
>     }
> }
>
> set() can be implemented as acquire from a copy, and swap can be implemented
> by calls to acquire and release. Technically, get() could be also
> implemented with acquire and release, but that's too intensive for most
> types.
>
> The problem I'm seeing is that most people won't want to go through the
> trouble of implementing three functions for one property.

I absolutely wouldn't.  Once we start doing stuff like that, we start
getting into tedious C++ territory.  Holding the compiler's hand,
writing mountains of tedious, easy-to-mess-up boilerplate code, just
to be able to implement simple things so they fit in with the
language's weird semantics.  At that point I'd _rather_ use the
current "properties."