While we're lynching features, how bout' them omittable parens?

[Ary Borenszweig]

Steven Schveighoffer wrote:
> On Tue, 19 May 2009 00:29:17 -0400, Ary Borenszweig 
> <ary at esperanto.org.ar> wrote:
> 
>> Jesse Phillips escribió:
>>> On Mon, 18 May 2009 21:53:06 -0400, Nick Sabalausky wrote:
>>>
>>>> "Chad J" <chadjoan at __spam.is.bad__gmail.com> wrote in message
>>>> news:gut1od$l56$1 at digitalmars.com...
>>>>> Lionello Lunesu wrote:
>>>>>> "Chad J" <chadjoan at __spam.is.bad__gmail.com> wrote in message
>>>>>> news:gut0f2$jc0$1 at digitalmars.com...
>>>>>>> Nevermind properties.  Any chance we can forbid the omittable
>>>>>>> parentheses, at least in the lhs of an assignment expression?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>> This is not because of the omittable parens. Even with added parens
>>>>>> that code should not compile!
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>> Agreed!
>>>> I still want to get rid of omittable parens (and 
>>>> function-call-as-a-lhs)
>>>> anyway. They're a horrible substitute for a real property syntax.
>>>  I don't like C# properties, IMO it is pointless overhead. I agree 
>>> you can misuse the omittable parentheses, but what is a "real" 
>>> property syntax? Seems to me both D and C# provide the same syntax 
>>> they are just set up differently.
>>
>> What I like in C# about properties is that they are like "pure" 
>> functions, so they don't have side-effects (this is just a contract on 
>> the semantic of properties). What that means is that you can invoke 
>> them while debugging code and be sure they don't alter the flow of 
>> execution. So when watching a variable you automatically can see it's 
>> properties, not just it's variables. I find that very useful, since 
>> properties basically tell you what's the representation of an object, 
>> what's it's meaning (hiding how it is implemented, ultimately).
>>
>> Currently you can't do that in a D debugger because a method like "int 
>> foo();" could have side effects.
>>
>> So for me, properties are way more than just syntax sugar.
> 
> AFAIK, this is not enforced by the compiler...
> 
> I write C# properties that have side effects.

That's what I said it's a contract on the semantic of properties. :)

But now I'm curious: what kind of properties do you write?